RSM Tenon tries to turn the page after dire year
EMBATTLED professional services firm RSM Tenon tried to draw a line under an “unsatisfactory” year yesterday, after reporting a pre-tax loss of £101.8m.
The firm said it is cutting 400 staff, more than first planned and with some compulsory redundancies, as part of its turnaround. It has overhauled its top staff this year after discovering accounting errors in January that sparked a profit warning.
“It was unacceptable to have allowed a situation where costs had grown to be in excess of revenues, and bank indebtedness had become a multiple of the company’s market capitalisation,” said Tim Ingram, who came on board as chairman in May.
“To say that the year ended 30 June 2012 was a disappointment would be an understatement; this year has been totally unsatisfactory for shareholders and other stakeholders.”
RSM Tenon has also agreed a deal with Lloyds Banking Group to raise its lending facility to £93m and extend it until December 2014 to give it breathing space during its recovery efforts.
Revenues fell 8.8 per cent to £208.m in the year to the end of June, while operating costs rose 33.5 per cent to £300.5m due to redundancies and write-down costs. This pulled the firm to a pre-tax loss of £101.8m, from a £1.5m loss in the previous year’s restated accounts.
New chief executive Chris Merry said the figures were “the end of a chapter”.