27th Jan 2016 08:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Staffing and training company Staffline Group PLC on Wednesday said its pretax profit halved in 2015 due to restructuring costs, but its revenue rose significantly through acquisitions and it hiked its dividend significantly.
Staffline said its pretax profit for the year to end December was GBP5.5 million, down from GBP10.5 million, though this was mostly driven by it booking GBP22.8 million in one-off administrative costs from the acquisition and subsequent reorganisation of A4e, the training services company Staffline bought last year for GBP34.5 million.
When these one-offs are stripped out, pretax profit for the group rose to GBP28.3 million from GBP18.6 million.
Due to the acquisition, revenue for Staffline rose to GBP702.2 million from GBP503.2 million, leaving the group on track to hit its target of GBP1.0 billion in annual revenue by 2017.
Staffline said its Staffing business performed well and continued to expand over the course of the year, while its Employability division, which comprises its training services, traded well, particularly on the Transforming Rehabilitation contract it won with the UK's Ministry of Justice in February last year.
The group said it will pay a final dividend of 12.5 pence per share, taking its total dividend up to 20.0p from 13.5p, a 48% hike.
"We are confident that our strategic initiatives in both of our divisions will continue to support our momentum and as a result we expect to exceed current market expectations for 2016 and continue to achieve strong returns for our shareholders," said Chief Executive Andy Hogarth.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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