Services giant Serco’s plans to offload its leisure arm as part of CEO Rupert Soames’ strategy overhaul may be delayed by ‘up to a year’.

Serco Leisure – which manages around 60 UK locations including Bisham Abbey and Lilleshall National Sports Centres, plus the National Water Sports Centre – had been expected to be sold this summer, with two UK buyers initially understood to have been in contention.

However, a well-placed source has told Health Club Management that the sale may now not be completed for up to a year. Serco’s Environmental Services business is also up for sale and it’s thought that the complexity of divesting from the various leisure and environmental contracts it has in place with local authorities is part of the reason for the slow progress.

Serco Group recently announced its half year results, which showed operating profit fell to a £24.8m loss – down from profits of £28.1m during the same period last year. The filing noted that the sale of Serco’s Environmental Services and Leisure businesses involves “the process of novating a large number of individual contracts with multiple local authority customers.”

Asked by Health Club Management for comment on the delay of the Serco Leisure sale, a spokesperson replied: “As we said in the publication of our half year results in August, the potential disposals of both our Environmental Services and Leisure businesses in the UK are ongoing. There is no further update to give at this time.”