Scoot reshuffles suits as losses fall

ONLINE directory Scoot.com has severed the last executive management link with its troubled past as chief operating officer Jon Molyneux stepped into a non-executive role. Managing director Terry Martin will take over Molyneux's job but will not change titles.

Martin, who has to rescue a company brought to the brink of collapse after a series of embarrassing debacles, said the recovery plan was on track even though the plan's costs have risen by £2m to £7.5m.

The restructuring, dubbed Project Genesis by the company, had secured it net cash of £12.2m by the end of October. Ending the hedge funds' leverage over it by paying off convertible bond and equity credit line backers cost Scoot about £17.5m of the £45m garnered by the sale of its Loot print arm to DMGT.

Martin plans to resume brand marketing in the New Year, which will be the first Scoot adverts since March. Scoot's reduced size helped cut losses on the core operations in the quarter to 30 September to £5.3m versus £9m in the second quarter.

For the nine months, £114m of charges sent pre-tax losses spiralling to £175m against a loss of £34.2m a year earlier. Quarter-on-quarter group revenues rose 6.1% to £10.4m.