12th Nov 2008 07:00
12 November 2008 Hays plc: Annual General Meeting statement Hays plc, the leading global specialist recruitment group, will hold its AnnualGeneral Meeting today. Bob Lawson, Chairman, will make the following commentsto shareholders:"On 9 October, we issued an Interim Management Statement for the quarter ended30 September 2008. In that statement we stated that we had made a solid startto the year recording 10% net fee growth (4% on a like-for-like basis*) in thefirst quarter against an increasingly difficult economic environment. We alsomade the following comments about market conditions and management actions:Currently, in the United Kingdom demand for temporary placements remainsstable, except in Construction & Property and demand for permanent placementscontinues to fall. In Australia, we are still seeing good growth in demand fortemporary placements but demand for permanent placements has started to fall.In most of the other countries in which we operate, we are still seeing stronggrowth in demand for our services. Whilst there is no doubt that many of ourmarkets are getting tougher, the experience of our management team, theflexibility of our cost base, the increased diversification of the Group, andthe strength of our balance sheet positions us well to deal with these marketconditions. In the last two quarters we have continued to take action to reduceour cost base in those markets already affected by the wider economic issuesand going forward we will continue to keep a tight control on costs, focus oncash generation and react rapidly to changing market conditions.
These comments still apply today. We will provide a more detailed trading update for the quarter ending 31 December 2008 on 8 January 2009."
* LFL is like-for-like growth, which represents organic growth of continuingactivities at constant currency. No adjustment is made for the one additionaltrading day in the quarter ended 30 September 2008 versus the same period lastyear. EnquiriesHays plc Paul Venables Finance Director + 44 (0) 20 7383 2266 Martin Abell Investor Relations + 44 (0) 20 7383 2266 Brunswick Gill Ackers + 44 (0) 20 7404 5959 Catherine Colloms Reporting calendar
Trading statement for quarter ending 31 December 2008 8 January 2009
Interim results for 6 months ending 31 December 2008 26 February 2009 Trading statement for quarter ending 31 March 2009 9 April 2009 Trading statement for quarter ending 30 June 2009 9 July 2009
Preliminary results for 12 months ending 30 June 2009 3 September 2009
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