10th Mar 2016 08:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - Recruiter Robert Walters PLC on Thursday said its pretax profit and revenue both grew in 2015 and said it will hike its dividend as it affirmed its expectations for 2016, despite remaining mindful of potential economic challenges.
Pretax profit for the year to the end of December grew 28% to GBP22.4 million from GBP18.2 million in 2014, as revenue increased 20% to GBP812.7 million from GBP679.6 million and gross profit, of net fee income, rose to GBP234.4 million from GBP215.3 million, up 9.0%.
Robert Walters will pay a final dividend of 5.13 pence, taking its total dividend up 18% year-on-year to 7.08p from 6.0p.
Net fee income increased across its international operations, with very strong growth in Japan and a robust performance in the UK, despite a slowdown in financial services recruitment towards the end of the year. Europe net fee income grew on strong Dutch, Belgian and Spanish markets, while Robert Walters said some encouraging signs of recovery emerged in France.
"The group has delivered another year of strong profit growth. This performance has been underpinned by growth across both emerging and established recruitment markets, across permanent, interim and contract recruitment as well as in our recruitment process outsourcing business," said Robert Walters, the firm's chief executive.
"Looking ahead, whilst mindful of ongoing global market uncertainty we believe that the strength, depth and diversity that the group now has in terms of geography, discipline and revenue streams ensures that we are well positioned for the future. Our expectations for the full year remain unchanged," he added.
Robert Walters shares were up 3.4% to 308.17p.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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