Mouchel counts cost of takeover

RAIL, roads and utilities contractor Mouchel Parkman has dived into the red as it counted the cost of its merger last summer.

Mouchel's £78m takeover of Parkman in August cost it £5.4m in exceptional items, including paying its advisers, led by ABN Amro, as it paid stamp duty on the all-paper deal, banged together the groups' computer and financial systems, wrote off its aborted move into the schools inspection market and laid off 50 head office staff.

Those charges took the shine off a 37% increase in underlying profits in the six months to 31 January, and led to the group booking a loss for the period of £264,000. Despite this, the company is lifting its interim dividend by 20% to 0.9p.

Also, it today announced it has won £73m worth of contracts from the water industry, including a 10-year seepage inspections assignment for notoriously-leaky Thames Water.

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