Whitehead Mann £20m in the red

WHITEHEAD Mann attempted to wipe the slate clean today after a turbulent two years at the one-time leading headhunter but with no sign of a dividend in the foreseeable future the shares struggled to pick themselves up from recent lows.

The City headhunter, which can trace its troubles back to the departure of its founder and driving force Anna Mann, today said it plunged £20m into the red in the year to 31 March.

This follows the failure of its Wall Street office, the implosion of its executivecoaching business and the decision to put all its people under one roof ? including the closureof an outpost in Cirencester.

At operating level, the company's previous £4.8m profit turned into into a £9m loss while earnings from the businesses it is concentrating on plunged 80%.

Chairman Sir Colin Southgate, the former boss of EMI, said the company, which went through an emergency 40p-a-share, £12m refunding two months ago, would not be paying a final dividend and did not expect to pay one in the current financial year either. Whitehead Mann shares were today up ½p at 391½p.