Following its upbeat trading statement a couple of months back (see Harvey Nash on track in year-end run-up), UK-based international recruitment, outsourcing and offshoring firm, Harvey Nash, confirmed that the year (to 31st January) closed ahead of market expectations, with revenues up 26% to £532m. Although gross margins look like they dropped a point from last year’s 16%, pre-tax margins leapt from 10% to 15%. As a result, management is lifting the div by 10% to a total of 2.66p a share.
CEO Albert Ellis alluded to an “interesting” Q4 which “adversely impacted clients’ appetite to hire £100k plus executives whilst driving up demand for temporary and freelance technology recruitment”. Indeed, mobile technology was a key driver of the demand for IT staff. Harvey Nash is also continuing its international expansion, with plans to open new offices in Hong Kong and Sydney. However, its HQ is to remain firmly rooted in the UK.
Ellis remains cautious for the current year, expecting pre-tax profits to come in some 8-9% lower. No news, though, on the Vietnam-based offshore IT outsourcing business – I guess we’ll have to wait for the ‘full monty’ results at the end of April.