Consultant engineer posts £13.5m loss after 'difficult' year

Mouchel has posted a loss of £13.5m loss after being hit by £53.6m exceptional loss.

Richard Cuthbert
Cuthbert: Difficult year

Mouchel said its Middle Eastern division had been hit hard by the downturn, and it had been forced “substantially restructure” its business in the Gulf, which included redundancies.

The group added that it had been spent the last month attempting to secure sums owed to it in the Middle East, and had incurred a £15m exceptional impairment charge against fees earned which it has not yet received.

The group said revenue rose 13% from £656.7m in 2008 to £740 in 2009 in preliminary results for the year ended July 31 2009.

Underlying profit before tax increased marginally from £38.8m in 2008 to £40.1m in 2009.

Commenting on the results, chief executive Richard Cuthbert said: "This has been a difficult and disappointing year for Mouchel. In the second half we have had to deal with the substantial withdrawal from the rail market, together with the impact of the economic downturn on our Middle East and management consulting businesses."

“These have clouded what has otherwise been another year of growth and strong performance in our core business,” he added.