It looks like we’ll have to wait until the preliminary results in October to get a detailed understanding of Mouchel’s recent performance. In a brief trading statement, the support services and BPO firm states that the trading environment has remained challenging since its last update in mid-June (see Mouchel appoints new FD from Carillion). It sounds like previously mooted opportunities in the local government BPO market are taking time to convert into real money. However, Mouchel does say it has experienced an increase in bidding activity in its core markets and describes the order book (£1.4 billion) and pipeline (£2.2 billion) as remaining “strong”.
Winning new deals will continue to be tough as Mouchel executes its debt reduction plan. It’s early days so the company is still dealing with the costs of redundancies. As such, net debt has only marginally decreased – standing at £87.4m (compared to £84.5 million at the end of last year).