(MMC.L) Management Consulting Group PLC Buy/Sell

RNS Number : 3046C
  Management Consulting Group PLC
  10 November 2009
   

10 November 2009

Management Consulting Group PLC

Interim Management Statement and Directorate Changes

Interim management statement

Management Consulting Group PLC ('MCG' or 'the Group'), the international professional services group, today announces an update on progress in the business since 3 August 2009. The financial results for the full year to 31 December 2009 will be reported on 8 March 2010. It also announces changes to its Board.

Group trading

MCG expects to report underlying* operating profit for the 2009 financial year in line with consensus between £28m and £30m. The achievement of this profit figure reflects active cost management across the Group in the face of the difficult trading conditions experienced by the professional services industry which have continued since the half-year results announcement. In particular MCG has mitigated the effects of these conditions by reducing employee numbers and discretionary bonus payments accrued in relation to the 2009 financial year.

Trading during the summer period has been slower than expected and each of the three divisions has reduced their revenue forecasts for the full year as a result. The reductions at Kurt Salmon Associates and Ineum Consulting are small and trading for the September to December 2009 period is expected to be in line with expectations. However the influx of new business at Alexander Proudfoot, usually seen following the summer slowdown, has not materialised this year and, as a result, Proudfoot's second half revenue will be lower than expected. Alexander Proudfoot is a business that generally performs well when the world economy is experiencing either an upswing or a downturn, as companies require throughput and revenue maximisation or cost reduction projects, respectively. Recently potential clients have tended towards a 'wait and see' approach and a deferral of prospective business. As a result, 2009 revenue for MCG as a whole is now expected to be in the range of £280m to £290m. Despite this, as noted above, underlying operating profit is expected to be in line with consensus.

Non-recurring costs are expected to reach between £9m and £10m for the full year, reflecting the continued requirement to reduce employee numbers across the Group. Currently MCG employs around 1,700 people, down from a peak of 2,350 in June 2008. 

* The term 'underlying' is defined as "before non-recurring items, the amortisation of acquired intangible assets and the impairment of acquired goodwill from continuing operations".

Cash flow and balance sheet

Whilst cost savings generally result in immediate cash improvements, the majority of bonus payments are made in the year following the year of accrual and those relating to the 2009 financial year would normally be made during the first half of 2010. Thus the positive cash effect of these cost savings will be seen in 2010, not 2009 and hence the shortfall in revenue will adversely impact the year end net debt figure, which is now expected to be around £90m. The Group is in compliance with the covenants under its existing banking facilities and will manage its affairs to ensure that this continues to be the case. The EBITDA used to calculate leverage covenant compliance is expected to be around £5m higher than underlying operating profit. The Group cash flow will benefit in 2010 from the lower bonus payment.

Ineum Consulting

During 2009 the Group received indicative offers from three French private equity houses interested in purchasing some part or all of Ineum Consulting. The Board has reviewed these offers in detail, given the desire to maximise value for its shareholders. Two of these approaches foundered quite early in the process but significant time and expense was incurred on the third, which valued Ineum Consulting at around £85m. The cost of this project was approximately £1.6m and this is included in the non-recurring cost total above. The Board has concluded that this proposal materially undervalued the Ineum Consulting business and was significantly dilutive to MCG shareholders and accordingly it too was rejected.

Executive Chairman Alan Barber commented, "2009 has been a challenging year for all of us at MCG following the record results reported in 2008. We are not immune to the global difficulties in consulting and professional services and we believe that we are weathering the storm better than many of our competitors. We have taken strong and concerted action to manage the business and control costs, giving us confidence that consensus profit figures can be achieved despite the current adverse environment. We are dedicated to ensuring the business is well positioned to benefit from the eventual recovery in the global economy and to create long-term value for shareholders. We are delighted that Ineum Consulting is remaining within MCG. Ineum has been a very successful acquisition for the Group and is an important element of our current offering to the market." 

Directorate Changes

The Group also today announces that Mr. Chiheb Mahjoub has been appointed to the Board as an executive director, with immediate effect. 

Mr. Mahjoub (45), who has dual French and Tunisian nationality, is a graduate of the cole Nationale des Ponts et Chauss? and Ensimag in Paris where he obtained a Master of Engineering degree and an MBA. Following a short period working in the derivatives market he helped to establish and develop Summit Systems, a global leader in derivatives trading software packages. In 1995 Mr. Mahjoub joined Deloitte Consulting to develop its investment banking practice in France before becoming lead partner in charge of its Continental Europe Investment Banking Skills Centre. During this period he was involved in major strategic and transformational assignments for leading financial institutions in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific. In 2003 Mr. Mahjoub was one of the founding partners of Ineum Consulting, responsible for the Global Financial Services Team. In 2008 he became Managing Partner and Global Executive of Ineum Consulting, heading the development of its international business.

Mr. Miguel de Fontenay, an executive director of MCG, has stepped down from the Board with immediate effect. 

Mr. Barber commented, "I am delighted that Chiheb is joining the Board. He has been instrumental in building Ineum to its current position in the French market and will be able to use his strong international background to drive its future development. Ineum has been extremely successful since its acquisition and we look forward to working with Chiheb and the rest of Ineum management in this new phase of its history. I would like to thank Miguel for his contribution as a director of MCG."

Mr Mahjoub is beneficially interested in 3,740,322 Ordinary Shares representing 1.13 per cent of the issued share capital of the Company. An announcement will be made in due course of any further disclosures required under Rule 9.6.13 of the Listing Rules.

On 23 October 2009 it was announced that Mr. Nicholas Stagg has been appointed to the Board as an executive director and that Mr. JP Bolduc had resigned as a non-executive director. 

As previously reported the Executive Chairman, Alan Barber, will relinquish his executive duties towards the middle of 2010. A succession planning process is now underway, with input from an external executive search consultant to identify both internal and external candidates for the role, and the Group would expect to announce Mr. Barber's successor at the same time as the 2009 preliminary results in early March 2010.

For further information, please contact:

 Management Consulting Group PLC         Tel: +44 20 7710 5000
 Alan Barber         Executive Chairman
 Craig Smith         Finance Director

 Financial Dynamics                      Tel: +44 20 7269 7242
 Ben Atwell

Notes to editors:

Management Consulting Group PLC (MMC.L) is an umbrella organisation for a diverse range of consulting and professional services offerings. MCG operates through three divisions: Alexander Proudfoot, Ineum Consulting and Kurt Salmon Associates. Alexander Proudfoot provides operational improvement services. Ineum Consulting provides consulting services with industry expertise. Kurt Salmon Associates provides retail and health care consulting. The Group operates worldwide. For further information, visit www.mcgplc.com

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
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RNS Number : 0597C Management Consulting Group PLC 05 November 2009

TR-1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARES

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer Management Consulting Group Plc

of existing shares to which voting rights are attached:

2. Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):
An acquisition or disposal of voting rights Yes

An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached.

An acquisition or disposal of instruments with similar economic effect to qualifying financial instruments

An event changing the breakdown of voting rights

Other (please specify):

3. Full name of person(s) subject to the Legal & General Group Plc (L&G)

notification obligation:
4. Full name of shareholder(s) Legal & General Assurance (Pensions Management) Limited (PMC)

(if different from 3.):
02 November 2009

5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached:

6. Date on which issuer notified: 04 November 2009
7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or From 3% - 4% (L&G)

reached:

8. Notified details:

A: Voting rights attached to shares
Class/type of Situation previous Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
shares to the triggering
transaction

if possible using the ISIN CODE
Number Number Number of voting % of voting rights
of of Number rights
Shares Voting of shares
Rights
Direct Indirect Direct Indirect
ORD 13,067,946 13,067,946 13,421,055 13,421,055 4.04

GBP 0.25

B: Qualifying Financial Instruments Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
Number of voting
Type of financial Expiration Exercise/ rights that may be % of voting
instrument date Conversion Period acquired if the rights
instrument is
exercised/ converted.

C: Financial Instruments with similar economic effect to Qualifying Financial Instruments Resulting situation after the triggering transaction

Type of financial Exercise price Expiration date Exercise/ Number of voting rights instrument refers to % of voting rights
instrument Conversion period
Nominal Delta

Total (A+B+C)
Number of voting rights Percentage of voting rights
4.04
13,421,055

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or the financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable: Legal & General Group Plc (Direct and Indirect) (Group) Legal & General Investment Management (Holdings) Limited (LGIMH) (Direct and Indirect) Legal & General Investment Management Limited (Indirect) (LGIM) Legal & General Group Plc (Direct) (L&G) (13,421,055 - 4.04 % = LGAS, LGPL
& PMC)
Legal & General Investment Legal & General Insurance Holdings Limited

Management (Holdings) Limited (Direct) (LGIH) (Direct) (LGIMHD) (12,461,598 - 3.76 % = PMC)
Legal & General Assurance Legal & General Assurance Society Limited
(Pensions Management) Limited (LGAS & LGPL)

(PMC) (12,461,598 - 3.76 % =

Legal & General Pensions Limited (Direct)

Proxy Voting:
10. Name of the proxy holder:

11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease

to hold:

12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold

voting rights:

13. Additional information:
Notification using the total voting rights figure of 331,390,961
14. Contact name:
Helen Lewis (LGIM)
15. Contact telephone number:

This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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RNS Number : 6877B Management Consulting Group PLC 30 October 2009

30 October 2009

Management Consulting Group PLC (the "Company")

Director Declaration

In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.14, the Company announces that Mr Alan Barber, the Executive Chairman of the Company, was appointed as a non-executive director of Impax Asian Environmental Markets plc on 6 October 2009.

This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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RNS Number : 5173B Management Consulting Group PLC 28 October 2009

Management Consulting Group PLC ("the Company")

Director's Shareholding

The Company today announces that on 27 October 2009, Mr Stephen Ferriss, a non-executive director of the Company, acquired 2,960 ordinary shares of 25 pence each ("Ordinary Shares") in the Company at a price of 29 pence per Ordinary Share under the Company's dividend reinvestment plan. Following the acquisition of these shares, Mr Ferriss will be beneficially interested in 220,751 Ordinary Shares representing 0.07 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company.

28 October 2009

This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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