Mouchel set to lose out on £130m contract

Mouchel is set to lose out on £130m of work, after Rochdale council entered discussions with the consultant to terminate its regeneration partnership.

The consultant admitted in a trading statement this morning that discussions had begun with the council to mutually agree an “amicable exit” from the deal.

Mouchel’s pipeline has also decreased since July from £2.2bn to £1.6bn at the end of November.

The consultant said its failure to win a £400m contract to manage outsourced services for West Sussex council accounted for most of the pipeline fall.

But Mouchel said future trading had been supported by significant contract wins totalling £79m, for the London boroughs of Croydon and Hackney, the Highways Agency and the department for regional development in Northern Ireland.

The company said:  “Our expectations for the year to July 2012 remain unchanged.

“The economic environment continues to put pressure on margins across our markets, as clients face cutbacks in spending. 

“We have however, continued to win contracts and the actions to right-size the business are well under way, including plans to restructure the balance sheet of the group within the first half of 2012 and return the group to growth.”