27th Apr 2018 08:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Specialist recruitment firm Harvey Nash Group PLC hiked its dividend Friday after underlying full-year profit jumped on revenue growth and its transformation programme.
For the year ended January, pretax profit narrowed to GBP5.4 million from GBP8.5 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising to GBP889.3 million from GBP784.3 million the year before.
Profit performance was hurt by GBP4.7 million in non-recurring costs in the year, compared to GBP119,000 the year prior. This was primarily driven by costs associated with its transformation programme as well as acquisition and re-listing to the AIM market costs.
Harvey Nash moved from the main market of the London Stock Exchange to AIM in June 2017. The stock was up 3.8% early Friday at 100.19 pence.
"The group delivered an excellent performance in the year to January 2018, driven by our transformation programme which saw us sharpen our focus on the buoyant demand for technology skills, streamline our operations and complete two earnings enhancing acquisitions," Harvey Nash Chief Executive Officer Albert Ellis said. "This combination of organic and acquisitive growth, our renewed strategy and transformed cost base resulted in a 24% uplift in core profit before tax and an increased core conversion margin from 9.5% to 11.7%."
Core pretax profit - excluding non-recurring items - grew to GBP10.8 million from GBP8.6 million.
"I am particularly delighted by the outstanding performance of the UK business against a backdrop of Brexit related uncertainty and an overall decline in demand reported by many others in our sector," Ellis added. "A successful acquisition in IT solutions, increased demand in the regions and strong growth in Financial Services in London has contributed to this excellent result."
Harvey Nash declared a 2.652 pence per share final dividend, up from 2.525p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose to 4.30p from 4.09p the year before.
"We are encouraged by the strong trading momentum in the second half of the year to January 2018 which has continued into the current year," Ellis said. "As a result, the board is confident the group will continue to make significant progress in the year ahead."
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