Office workers
Capita is one of the UK's largest outsourcing companies and is rival mainly to G4S, Serco and Atos Yuri_Arcurs/iStock

Outsourcing company Capita, which is set to lose its blue chip status, has announced Chief Executive Officer Andy Parker will be stepping down after 2016 full-year pre-tax profits plunged by 33% to £74.8m ($91.9m, €87.3m).

In addition, the company will drop out of the FTSE 100 index of leading stocks later in March owing to a sharp decline in its share price, which plunged further on Thursday (2 March) fetching 521p, down 7.70% or 43.50p at 11.14am GMT.

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In a statement, Parker said he would be stepping down from his role once a replacement has been found, admitting that 2016 had been "a challenging year" in which Capita had "delivered a disappointing performance".

Capita, which is responsible for a host of public contracts including the collection of London's congestion charge and the UK's TV licence fee, is not expected to return to growth until 2018, with Parker describing its next 12 months as a "period of transition".

The company employs 75,000 people in the UK, wider Europe, India and South Africa. It issued a profit warning in September 2016 after delays in implementing new IT systems for the London congestion charge, and has recently come under criticism for the methods and incentives it put in place for the collection of the TV licence fee on behalf of the BBC.