28th Aug 2014 07:37
LONDON (Alliance News) - Hays PLC, the FTSE 250 recruitment company, Thursday reported 12% growth in full-year operating profit, and said it is ahead of schedule as it looks to broadly double operating profit by 2018.
In a statement, Hays said operating profit increased to GBP140.3 million in the year ended June 30, compared with GBP125.5 million last year. Net fees - the difference between revenue and remuneration of temporary workers and other recruitment agencies - crept up to GBP724.9 million from GBP719.0 million, as increases in Continental Europe & Rest of World and the UK & Ireland more than offset a fall in Asia Pacific.
However, revenue itself fell to GBP3.68 billion from GBP3.70 billion.
Pretax profit increased to GBP132.3 million pretax profit from GBP118.5 million. Hays increased its full-year dividend per share to 2.63 pence from 2.50p.
Chief Executive Alistair Cox said that Hays saw improved conditions in several key markets, notably in the UK, Asia, North America and a number of European countries, and took advantage by investing to drive growth.
"In the UK & Ireland, strong net fee growth and our focus on driving productivity improvements, combined with the on-going benefit of 2012's overhead cost reductions, meant we converted 86% of incremental net fees into operating profit. Elsewhere, 19 countries delivered record net fee performances and we made significant progress against our operational and strategic objectives, for example further expanding our global oil and gas business and making further good progress in rolling out our IT contracting business into new markets," Cox said in a statement.
"Our focus is on continuing to grow the business by leveraging that platform, driving further profit growth and building an ever-stronger leadership position in our industry," Cox added.
Hays shares were Thursday quoted up 1.6% at 131.40p.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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