Mouchel Parkman's debut results show £10m profit

Mouchel Parkman, the new professional services group, has made a pre-tax profit of £10m in its first set of annual results from a turnover of £270m.

Mouchel and Parkman first revealed plans to join forces on 21 August 2003.

Richard Cuthbert, chief executive, said: “We have achieved pretty much everything we set out to do in our first year. We completed our integration programme on time; met our financial objectives; and created a new and dynamic force in the market.”

The profits would have hit the higher figure of £19m had it not been for two constraints: there was a string of exceptional items running to £7.5m, while the amortisation of goodwill accounted for a further charge of £1.8m.

Merger costs accounted for £6m of the exceptional items, this figure being made up of transaction costs (£2.6m) and reorganisation costs (£3.4m). The other exceptional charge was £1.5m, the main component of this being a £800,000 loss on the disposal of the Hong Kong business to the Meinhardt Group in July.