Morse taps new boss, new structure

Morse has appointed a new chief exec as it continues to restructure the business.

The firm sold off its Jersey-based investment consultancy yesterday which leaves it with four independent business units - infrastructure services and technology units in the UK, Spain and Ireland and a business applications business.

The heads of each of the four businesses will report to new chief executive Mike Phillips. He was previously finance director for the group - a search for a new CFO has just begun.

For the six months ended 31 December 2008 Morse saw revenue fall to £114.4m from £123.8m last year and reported a pre-tax loss of £17.7m compared to a profit of £6.2m in the same period of last year.

Kevin Loosemore, executive chairman at Morse, said: "Whilst we expected the market for IT services and technology to remain difficult, we did not fully anticipate the extent to which the credit crunch would impact businesses globally."

Business in the UK has been solid with good progress on restructuring. In Ireland and Spain business has been harder hit by the global slowdown. Morse expects to spend between £1.5m and £1.7m on restructuring its Spanish business. Loosemore welcomed progress made in the UK but said there was still work to be done in Spain

Morse expects a further writedown in the value of its assets when they are reviewed by the board - once this is done the board will announce a dividend or a "capital reduction process".

The full statement is available from here.®