29th Oct 2015 08:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - Recruitment company Matchtech Group PLC said its pretax profit edged lower in the year to the end of July due to one-off costs, but the company hiked its dividend as total revenue increased thanks to the acquisition of Networkers International in April and also said it has appointed a new chairman.
Pretax profit slipped to GBP11.3 million in the financial year to July 31 from GBP11.9 million a year earlier, due to one-off administrative costs of GBP2.7 million and amortisation costs on the Networkers deal of GBP1.7 million.
Total revenue for the group increased to GBP502.3 million in the year, up from GBP451.6 million, due to the contribution from the Networkers business. Stripping out the contribution from the acquisition, Matchtech's revenue was down to GBP445.0 million.
Net fee income increased to GBP54.8 million from GBP45.0 million, again helped by the Networkers business. Without that, net fee income only rose by 1.0% to GBP45.3 million. Both contract and permanent recruitment income for the year were broadly flat, excluding Networkers.
Matchtech said it would pay a final dividend of 16.32 pence per share, up from 14.59p a year earlier, bringing its total dividend payout up to 22.00p from 20.00p.
The company said its current trading was in line with market expectations for the year, with a strong performance in its engineering recruitment business, though this was offset by weaker net fee income from its professional services division due to office closures.
"The 2016 financial year has started well in-line with management's expectations, with many buoyant markets across the group's core sectors. The group is realising cost synergies from the combination and early signs of sales synergies are coming through," said Chief Executive Brian Wilkinson.
"Looking ahead, we regard all our international locations to be a huge opportunity to advance our activities in local and regional markets across the world and are planning for substantial growth over the next few years," he added.
In a separate statement on Thursday, Matchtech said it has appointed Patrick Shanley as its non-executive chairman, effective from after its annual general meeting on December 2. Ric Piper, who has been interim chairman since January, will move back to his role as senior independent director on the same date.
Shanley is currently the chairman of Accsys Technologies PLC, the AIM-listed chemical technology company focused on the acetylation of wood.
Matchtech shares were up 1.2% to 502.62 pence on Thursday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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