Technology recruitment specialist MSB International reported a loss for the year to January but said trading in the first two months of its current year had picked up.

Last week, the company confirmed it had received a takeover approach. Reports say this was from bigger rival Quantica. Today’s announcement contained no further news on the takeover.

MSB said it had suffered from “inflexibility” in the final quarter. Chairman Paul Davies said: “A temporary downturn in sales activity could not quickly be countered by an equivalent reduction in the sales cost base”.

Revenue for the year was up 3.7% at £95.7m. But restructuring costs, including several redundancies and the closure of its Dublin office, forced it into the red. MSB reported a pre-tax loss of £558,000, against a profit

of £997,000 a year earlier.

Davies said MSB was already benefitting from the restructuring action it has taken.

MSB’s contract to supply staff for Unisys was extended on October for another two years.