22nd Jul 2015 07:33
LONDON (Alliance News) - Staffing and outsourcing company Staffline Group PLC on Wednesday said its pretax profit for the first half to the end of June was down due to exceptional items booked in the half, though its gross profit in the quarter surged higher on the back of a big rise in revenue and it hiked its dividend 50%.
Staffline said its pretax profit for the year was down to GBP854,000 from GBP1.9 million a year earlier, nearly entirely due to the group booking GBP9.3 million in exceptional costs related to share-based payment charges and amortisation of intangible assets related to acquisitions it made. Stripping those exceptional charges out, its pretax profit for the half-year was GBP10.1 million.
Gross profit, stripping out everything but cost of sales, for the group was up to GBP42 million from 23.7 million a year earlier, however, as revenue for Staffline surged to GBP297.2 million from GBP208.1 million. Its gross profit margin also rose to 14.1% from 11.4%. The revenue was pushed higher by the acquisitions of Avanta and A4e, though organic growth also hit 22% due to a strong first half for its staffing division.
On the back of the strong results, the company said its interim dividend has been hiked by 50% to 7.5 pence from 5.0 pence.
Staffline said it expects its A4e acquisition to be significantly earning enhancing going forward and remains confident on meeting full-year market expectations.
"The first half of 2015 has been a transformational period for Staffline. Our most notable achievement was the acquisition of A4e Ltd in April, which significantly strengthened our Employability offering, both for our Work Programme contracts and additional training and skills provision," said Chief Executive Andy Hogarth.
Staffline shares were down 4.5% to 1,349.00 pence early Wednesday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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