UPDATE: PageGroup Profit Grows Despite UK Drag As Non-Exec Stands Down

7th Mar 2018 10:12

LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 250-listed recruiter PageGroup PLC boosted its dividend Wednesday after profit and revenue grew strongly in 2017 despite the UK acting as a drag.

PageGroup also said a non-executive director is preparing to stand down.

Pretax profit grew 18% to GBP118.2 million from GBP100.0 million in 2016. This is after revenue advanced 15% to GBP1.37 billion from GBP1.20 billion the year before.

PageGroup proposed a 8.6 pence per share final dividend, up 4.5% from 8.23p the year before. For the full year, the dividend also increased 4.5% to 12.50p per share from 11.98p.

"2017 was a year of many records," PageGroup Chief Executive Officer Steve Ingham said. "We delivered our best ever gross profit for the group, as well as for each of our five large high-potential markets and three of our four regions. At the end of the year, we had a record number of fee earners, as well as our highest ever fee earner to operational support staff ratio."

PageGroup's large high-potential markets are the US, Germany, south east Asia, greater China and Latin America.

The only region not to hit new highs was the UK, which saw gross profit fall 3.8% at constant exchange rates. By contrast, Europe, Middle East & Africa grew by 15%, Asia Pacific by 10% and the Americas by 16%. In total, gross profit advanced 9.8% at constant exchange rates to GBP711.6 million from GBP621.0 million the year before.

"We continue to invest in our digital strategy to consistently improve how we source and then engage with our customers," Ingham added. "Our websites and advertising programmes continue to drive applications with almost all countries hitting all-time highs in January 2018 to increase awareness of our brands. We had over 100 million views of our content through the year and have seen this rewarded, winning the LinkedIn global award for the Most Socially Engaged Recruiter for a second time."

"In 2018 we will continue to invest in our Large High Potential Markets, as well as in markets with favourable trading conditions," Ingham continued. "However, we remain cautious in several markets as we progress through the year: primarily in the UK, where we will focus on protecting margins; in Australia, where we have invested in headcount and a new office in Canberra; and in Brazil, which remains challenging, despite a stronger performance in the fourth quarter. We will, as always, continue to focus on driving profitable growth while being able to respond quickly to changes in market conditions."

In a separate announcement, PageGroup said Non-Executive Director Danuta Gray would not seek re-election at its annual general meeting in June. Gray serves as remuneration committee chair and will be replaced in this role by Angela Seymour-Jackson on her resignation.

"We are extremely grateful to Danuta for her hard work and expertise over the last 4 years and on behalf of the board of PageGroup I thank Danuta for her significant contribution and wish her every success in the future", PageGroup Chairman David Lowden said.

Shares in PageGroup were 5.5% lower at 494.80 pence on Wednesday.

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