12th Aug 2021 12:36
(Alliance News) - Empresaria Group PLC on Thursday said it expects full year profit to be "significantly ahead" of market expectations and last year's results, following a swing to profit in the first half.
Shares in the Crawley, West Sussex-based recruitment and human resources specialist surged 14% to 92.64 pence in London on Thursday.
It booked pretax profit of GBP2.4 million for the six months ended June 30, swinging from a loss of GBP1.2 million for the same period last year.
Interim revenue was down by 4.6% at GBP129.8 million from GBP136.1 million a year before.
"Our first half results reflect not only an improving global economic environment but evidence the operational improvements we have put in place and the acceleration of many of these initiatives last year," said Chief Executive Rhona Driggs.
The staffing specialist's half year initiatives include the development of internal regional structure and investing in technology platforms. It reported capital expenditure of GBP700,000, of which technology investment got the largest slice.
Empresaria declared no interim dividend, unchanged from last year.
"We have continued to invest in technology with two more businesses going live on our core technology platform as we continue to implement this across the globe," the company said.
"As we add more businesses, we expect the benefits to accelerate, providing greater efficiencies, greater ability to cross-sell, and access to a global database."
Profits for the full year are now expected to be significantly ahead of the prior year and current market expectations, Empresaria said. In 2020, the company recorded a pretax loss of GBP2.0 million.
By Josie O'Brien; [email protected]
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