15th Feb 2023 09:23
(Alliance News) - Gattaca PLC shares were down on Wednesday after it warned that permanent hiring showed signs of weakness since the turn of the year.
Shares in the Whiteley, England-based recruitment services provider were down 10% to 81.10 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
Gattaca said it expects group net fee income to be GBP22.7 million in the six months ended January 31, up 5.1% from GBP21.6 million a year ago. NFI is calculated as revenue less contractor payroll costs.
It added that the NFI mix split is 68% contract and 32% permanent. At the end of the first half of financial year 2022, the split was 70% contract and 30% permanent.
The company said it saw double digit growth in its core sectors, Infrastructure, Defence, Energy and Mobility. However, this was held back by Technology skills, Rail Site and International.
Further, it added that permanent hiring showed some signed of weakness at the turn of the year.
Looking ahead, Chief Executive Matthew Wragg said: "As we enter the second half, we are conscious of softening in some external sectors, and perm is likely to be impacted by a level of restraint around hiring, shifting candidate sentiment and, as such, slightly longer hiring cycles. Despite this we continue to see demand for STEM skills in our core sectors and the shortage of candidates plays to our key strength of deep knowledge and understanding of our sectors and niche skills."
Gattaca plans to announce its interim results for the six months ended January 31 on March 30.
In November, Gattaca said it had swung to a pretax loss of GBP4.8 million in the year ended July 31, from a profit of GBP812,000 a year ago. Revenue fell 3.1% to GBP403.3 million from GBP415.7 million. It also paused its dividend, after paying 1.5 pence per share a year ago.
By Sophie Rose, Alliance News reporter
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