14th Jan 2019 08:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - PageGroup PLC on Monday reported 16% growth in fourth-quarter gross profit due to strong performances across all business regions but said that annual gross profit was dented by exchange rate movements.
The recruitment company said foreign exchange movements decreased reported annual gross profit by GBP10 million and operating profit by GBP2 million.
Gross profit for 2018 stood at GBP815.0 million, up from GBP711.6 million in 2017. Operating profit is anticipated to be in line with company-compiled consensus estimate of GBP141.8 million.
The FTSE 250 company recorded GBP211.1 million gross profit for the final quarter of 2018, up from GBP182.4 million in the year-ago period. Fee earning accounts totalled 58, with the company having added 561 fee earning accounts in the first three quarters of 2018.
"Our five large, high-potential markets of Germany, Greater China, Latin America, South East Asia and the US continued to perform strongly, growing 25% collectively, with all five delivering a record year. In our six large, proven markets, the UK delivered a second consecutive quarter of marginal growth, up 2.1%, despite continued Brexit related uncertainty," Chief Executive Steve Ingham said.
"We will continue to focus on driving profitable growth, while continuing our strategic investments towards our Vision of 10,000 headcount, GBP1 billion of gross profit and GBP200 million - GBP250 million of operating profit," Ingham added.
PageGroup is slated to release its 2018 results on March 6.
Shares in the company were trading 5.0% lower at 441.60 pence each on Monday morning.
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