Morson (AIM: MRN.L), the UK's leading provider of technical engineering personnel and project design solutions, supplying over 9,000 highly skilled white collar personnel to the aerospace and defence, nuclear and power, rail and other technical industries, is pleased to announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2009.

Highlights

•·         Solid trading performance across the group:

▪               Group revenues up 1.2% to £436.6 million (2008: £431.4 million);

▪               Group net fee income (gross profit) down 5.3% to £34.8 million (2008: £36.7 million);

▪               Adjusted profit before tax down 8.0% to £10.8 million (2008: £11.7 million)^†;

▪               Profit before tax up 22.5% to £9.7 million (2008: £7.9 million);

▪               Profit after tax up 24.4% to £7.2 million (2008: £5.8 million);

▪               Adjusted basic earnings per share down 10.5% to 18.48 pence (2008: 20.64 pence)^†;and

▪               Basic earnings per share up 24.5% to 16.07 pence (2008: 12.91 pence).

•·         Continued resilience and consistency across the group.

•·         Current trading in line with directors' expectations.

•·         Proposed final dividend of 4.0 pence per share (2008: 4.0 pence) bringing the total dividend for the year to 6.0 pence (2008: 6.0 pence).

^† Before amortisation of £1,222,000 (2008: £972,000), exceptional head office relocation cost of £434,000 (2008: £1,280,000) and fair value gain regarding the derivative financial instrument £530,000 (2008: fair value loss £1,593,000).

Gerry Mason, Non Executive Chairman, said:

"I am pleased to report that we achieved solid results in challenging market conditions. The effects of the recession on the UK economy have been widespread but for Morson Group PLC have been tempered by several factors including the relative greater resilience of the sectors in which we operate, the impact of specific project demands and through having a strong business model with significant bias towards temporary contractor resource."