New business momentum also picked up towards the end of the period after a sluggish start to the new financial year, although this has to be set against continued caution around budgets from many existing clients. Major new client assignments won during the period include: Associated British Foods, Kraft, Dixons, Iron Mountain, Air Partner, Genworth, MTV, NHS, Santander and Unilever.

The Group also took steps to build a stronger platform for future growth, including the hiring of new CEOs for both CST The Gate (Luke Mugliston - formerly Global Head of Brand at Aviva) and CMW (Liz Wilson formerly MD of Albion), as well as significantly enhancing the quality of the team within Holmes and Marchant, the Group's consumer design agency.

The results for the six month period reflect the challenging environment. Revenue was slightly down on the same period as last year, although headline operating profit was at the same level.

The prospects for the Group remain constrained by its level of debt and the associated funding cost. Developing a long term solution to the Group's debt position has been the main priority of the Board for the past twelve months and we believe it is especially critical that concrete progress is made in this area in order for the Group to have an appropriate capital and funding structure in place that provides a solid platform on which to deliver profitable growth.

At 9:00am: (LON:MSQ) Media Square share price was -0.05p at 0.8p

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