Activity type factsheet 2024/25: Provide and Maintain
Published 18 March 2024
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Provide and Maintain
Under the Defence Reform Act 2014, the SSRO must provide the Secretary of State with its assessment of the appropriate rates used to determine the contract profit rate for pricing qualifying defence contracts and qualifying sub-contracts. Part of the methodology is the categorisation of comparator companies into five activity types.
- Develop and Make
- Provide and Maintain
- Ancillary Services
- Construction
- Information Technology Services
The results of these groups are separately analysed and this fact sheet describes the Provide and Maintain group results.
The baseline profit rate combines results from “Develop and Make” and “Provide and Maintain”, as set out in the Recommendation Factsheet. For further information on the methodology used to calculate these rates please see the Single Source baseline profit rate, capital servicing rates and funding adjustment methodology.
Provide and maintain
Companies undertaking comparable activities considered as ‘provide and maintain’ are expected to deliver services to ensure the availability of an asset either through repair and servicing to third party equipment, or through hire or lease arrangements that include associated upkeep and maintenance services.
Profit on cost of production
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underlying rate (unadjusted for capital servicing) | 9.92% | 9.90% | 7.02% | 9.21% | 8.86% |
| Capital servicing adjustment | -2.15% | -1.65% | -1.01% | -1.48% | -1.03% |
| Underlying rate | 7.77% | 8.25% | 6.01% | 7.73% | 7.83% |
| Rolling average* | 8.37% | 8.39% | 7.79% | 7.92% | 7.94% |
Note: The capital servicing adjustment accounts, at an aggregate level, for different levels of capital employed across the companies in the index and so sets a baseline upon which step 6 of the contract profit rate applies.
‘*’ A four-year average was used for 2022/23; a three-year average for pre-2022/23 and a three-year average (excluding 2022/23 underlying rate) for 2023/24 and 2024/25.
The pre-2020/21 underlying rates used for the three-year average were: 2018/19: 8.20% and 2019/20: 9.14%.
Data sources
For further information on the data selection approach please see section 7 of the Single Source baseline profit rate, capital servicing rates and funding adjustment methodology. A company update search of the Orbis database was carried out on 1 November 2023 on data update number 342001 using software version 342. The financial data for the calculation was extracted from Orbis at the same time.
Median capital servicing adjusted return on cost of production
Proportion of Companies by country
Proportion of companies with defence keyword
Supplementary statistics
| Number of companies | 53 |
| of which profit making | 46 |
| Aggregate turnover (£billions) | £125 |
| Total capital employed (CE) (£billions) | £59 |
| Average company CP:CE ratio | 1.89 |
Source: Orbis (Cash figures shown in rounded GBP Billions)
Names of companies in the index
| AAR Corp |
| AB Transitio * |
| Airtanker Holdings Limited |
| Airtanker Services Limited |
| Alltruck PLC |
| Applus Services, S.A. |
| Archrock, Inc. |
| Ashtead Group PLC |
| Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. * |
| Babcock International Group PLC |
| CAE INC |
| Cowles Holdings Limited |
| Cuypers Vorkliften |
| Dawsongroup PLC |
| Finning International INC |
| Fisher (James) & Sons PLC |
| Flowserve Corp |
| Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure Investors LLC * |
| G M Treble Holdings Limited |
| Gama Aviation PLC * |
| Gatx Corp |
| General de Alquiler de Maquinaria, S.A. |
| H&E Equipment Services, Inc. |
| Indra Sistemas S.A. |
| Jacobs Solutions Inc. |
| John Wood Group PLC * (J) |
| Johnson Controls International PLC (J) |
| Kbr, Inc. |
| Mcgrath Rentcorp |
| MTU Aero Engines AG |
| Muehlhan AG |
| N3 Engine Overhaul Services GmbH & Co. KG |
| Natural GAS Services Group, Inc. * |
| Redde Northgate PLC |
| Renew Holdings PLC |
| Ricardo PLC |
| Ropsley Limited |
| RWG (Repair & Overhauls) Limited |
| Ryder System INC |
| Saltire Energy Limited |
| Sawo Holding A/S |
| Snc-Lavalin Group INC (J) |
| Speedy Hire PLC |
| Technipfmc PLC |
| Toromont Industries LTD |
| United Rentals, Inc. |
| Vegsund Slip Holding AS |
| VSE Corp |
| Werent S.R.L. |
| Westinghouse AIR Brake Technologies Corp |
| Williams Shipping Holdings Limited |
| Willis Lease Finance Corp |
| Willis Mitsui & CO Engine Support Limited * |
‘*’ Indicates that the company is a loss-maker in the year.
(J) indicates a company which was not in the activity group last year, but has been added this year.