Mouchel-led bid deferred by Bournemouth Council

LONDON (Reuters) - British outsourcer Mouchel's proposed deal with Bournemouth borough council was delayed by the authority on Tuesday, which asked for more financial data to assess the project cost in light of central government spending cuts.

Mouchel, which also maintains British highways, is leading a consortium with maintenance firm Interserve and French IT company Capgemini to provide the coastal town in southern England with IT and facilities management services.

"We didn't have enough sufficient financial information and we have asked the officers to take it away and bring it back at a later date," Peter Charon, chairman of Bournemouth Council's Overview and Scrutiny panel told Reuters.

"We know the government is talking pretty drastic cuts in our grants, we didn't think there was sufficient financial data to compare how we do things on an in-house basis as opposed to outsourcing," he said, adding "what we've got in front of us is not compelling."

As a result of the delay, Mouchel -- which was awarded preferred bidder status last month -- said it expected the start date of the contract to also be pushed back.

"This will cause a short delay before a second meeting can reconvene and we anticipate it will, as a result, result in a short, subsequent delay to the start date," the company said in a statement.

The Mouchel project delay follows similar problems for rival Connaught, shares in which plunged last month after it said a number of social housing sector contracts would be delayed because of government belt-tightening.

The proposal would save Bournemouth just under 12 million pounds over ten years, the duration of the contract, and Mouchel would receive 152 million pounds over that period to provide the services, according to figures provided by Bournemouth council.

"Assuming these reports are correct, it's embarassing for a company to highlight success with something like this and then find it's been snatched away from them. The fairest thing one can say is that it's a reflection of the current climate," Nich Spoliar, analyst at Altium Securities told Reuters.

In its last interim management statement, Mouchel said it had several substantial outsourcing deals in the procurement stage, which it expected to enter its pipeline in the months ahead.

Shares in Mouchel had dropped 50 percent since May and were trading up by 1.85 percent to 138 pence at 1633 GMT. The FTSE Small Caps index also ticked up slighty by 85 percent to 2,689 points.

(Editing by Simon Jessop)