Support services group Mouchel Parkman has made a £19.4m profit in the first year since it was formed by a merger.

Pre-tax profit rose 43% and all parts of the business performed well.

Richard Cuthbert, the firm’s chief executive, said: “We have achieved pretty much everything we wanted to achieve.”

However, Mouchel Parkman had to write off exceptional costs of £6m, associated with the merger. These related to transaction and restructuring costs.

Cuthbert said Mouchel Parkman had started to win contracts that would not have been possible as separate entities. These included a 10-year contract with Thames Water, a joint venture with Balfour Beatty on a City of Westminster highways project and an eight-year contract for the Tube Lines consortium to replace signalling on the London Underground’s Jubilee and Northern Lines.

“I don’t think we would have won those as either Mouchel or Parkman,” said Cuthbert.

“We expected bigger contracts with fewer clients and that is what has happened.”

To date, Mouchel Parkman has won about a third of the contracts it has bid for, and is aiming to increase that to about 40%.

Cuthbert highlighted roads, schools, housing and water as areas where the company saw good opportunities for growth.

Turnover rose 22% to £272m and the board recommended a dividend of 2.7p for the year.