6th Aug 2015 08:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - Recruitment agency Matchtech Group PLC said it expects its profits to meet current market expectations for its recently ended financial year.
According to broker forecasts provided by Morningstar, Numis Securities expects Matchtech to post a pretax profit of GBP15.8 million for the year to end-July, whilst Equity Development expects GBP15.5 million. In the previous year, Matchtech recorded a pretax profit of GBP11.9 million.
The company's results will include a maiden four months contribution from its acquisition of Networkers International in April.
Matchtech said its total net fee income rose 22% to GBP55.0 million from GBP45.0 million a year before, bolstered by the contribution from Networkers. Excluding Networkers, net fee income rose 1% compared to the previous year, as strong growth in engineering offset a decline in professional services, hit by the closure of its Barclay Meade London operation.
The company noted that its investment in headcount last year, and in the first half of this year, had not translated into an expected increase in client demand. As a result headcount was reduced during the second half by 33, plus 28 from the closure of Barclay Meade in London.
"We remain committed to our strategy of being a specialist recruitment group. Networkers has introduced telecoms to the group's offering and added long-standing, substantial and profitable overseas operations, which will enable us to accelerate the introduction of our Engineering services to our international customer base, in the medium term," said Chief Executive Officer Brian Wilkinson in a statement.
"Looking ahead, the board's plan is for group net fee income to return to growth in the second half of the 2016 financial year, with further growth over the medium term," Wilkinson added.
Matchtech expects to issue its full-year results October 29.
Shares in Matchtech were down 1.7% at 575.00 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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