Dive Brief:

• British public transport company Mobico Group CFO James Stamp will step down as finance chief and as a member of the company’s board, effective June 11, Mobico announced Monday in a press release.
• Helen Cowing, a veteran of companies including Selecta Group and Octopus Group, will join the firm as interim CFO, effective that date, Mobico said.  
• The CFO transition comes after the Birmingham, U.K.-based Mobico twice pushed back the reporting of its full year 2023 financial results due to accounting issues relating to its German rail business. Mobico reported a 36% dip in profit for full-year 2023, with revenue impacted by inflationary pressures, the company said in a separate Monday press release.

Dive Insight:

Stamp is stepping down after two years in the top financial seat for the company, which rebranded as Mobico Group from National Express in June — though its operating subsidiaries continue to operate under the National Express brand, according to a company release at the time. A seven-year veteran of the company, which provides coach, bus and rail services in the U.K. and other markets through a number of brands, Stamp was appointed to the CFO seat in December 2022 after serving in the role on an interim basis starting that November.

His successor Cowing has served in a variety of executive roles, including as a member of the board of trustees for London-based nonprofit Tearfund and as the executive in residence for the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) based in Switzerland, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her previous CFO roles include serving as finance chief for vending machine company Selecta Group and for financial services provider Octopus Group.

Cowing is assuming the interim CFO position as the transportation company struggles with lukewarm financial results for its full-year 2023, also reported Monday. The results include the completion of an audit relating to accounting judgments of its German rail business, which caused Mobico to delay the reporting of its full-year results twice.

The company first announced it would be delaying their reporting in February, after determining the accounting issues identified in its German rail business “should be subject to further review,” Mobico said.

“The delay in publication of financial results will allow management to conclude its review and allow the Group's auditor, Deloitte, the requisite amount of time to complete its audit,” the company said in its February press release, announcing it expected to publish its full-year results at the end of March.

Mobico again delayed publication of its full-year results in March, pushing that expected date to the latter half of April, though it also noted that “all of the substantive work” for its audit of its German rail business had been completed.

The audit concerned the initial judgments made by Modico on revised indices by the German Federal Statistical Office, concerning its 2022 financial results. 

“Whilst it is the Group's expectation that the models used to calculate the profitability of the German Rail business remain valid, further work is now required to determine the full effect of the revised indices,” the company said in its March update.

Mobico’s 2023 financial results came in “below the expectations we set ourselves at the beginning of the year,” CEO Ignacio Garat said in a statement included in the company’s Monday release.

“The delays due to the additional work relating to the German Rail business was regrettable but it is now concluded,” Garat said. “Group revenue growth was encouraging, driven by passenger demand and actions taken to recover inflation.” However,  “this has not translated into an improvement in reported profitability,” he said.

For the full year ended Dec. 31, 2023, Mobico reported adjusted profit before tax of £92.9 million, a 36% drop year-over-year. It reported group revenue of £3.15 billion for the full-year, a 12.2% increase from the prior year period.

The year overall was “challenging” for the group, Mobico said in its Monday release, with inflationary pressures as well as “structural issues in Germany (labor scarcity and energy price volatility)” impacting profitability.  As a result of its audit, the company restated its 2022 revenue for its German division to £268.5 million, with revenue for 2023 dipping 3.2% to reach £259.8 million.

Mobico Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.