Mouchel upbeat as it appoints new finance director

Consultant Mouchel has said the outlook for the UK business is improving in a trading update and has appointed a new finance director.

David Tilson, who has previously held financial management posts at firms including SABMiller, Balfour Beatty, Amec and Atkins will join Mouchel on 13 September.

The 52-year-old chartered accountant will replace Kevin Young who left the company on 31 August after 12 years.

In a trading update released this morning, Mouchel says it is confident in terms of future outlook, despite public sector spending cuts: “The medium and longer-term outlook is becoming increasingly positive as the new government’s policies are implemented by organisations across central and local government.”

The firm added that is has won new work in Australia and Abu Dhabi and that it expects to save £25m of costs in the full-year.

The update follows a turbulent period for the firm. Shares in the consultant fell 5% last month. The firm also reported at the time that it had incurred additional restructuring costs of £10m-£15m which would have to be factored into expected earnings.

In April this year Mouchel’s chief executive, Richard Cuthbert, was forced to dismiss takeover talk after rumours emerged that private equity firms may be looking at the company following engineering support services firm, VT Group’s, £276m bid in December.

In the six months to 31 January, turnover at Mouchel fell 12% from £366m to £312m and the company made a pre-tax loss of £3.5m.