The winter of some discontent appears to be mostly passed for international recruitment, outsourcing and offshoring firm, Harvey Nash. Today’s FY results (to 31st Jan) pretty much confirm February’s preview (see No winter blues for Harvey Nash), with profits even slightly higher than signalled. Headline revenues rose by 12% to £422m, including a £2m contribution from the April ’10 acquisition of Norwegian executive search firm, Bjerke & Luther. Operating margins almost quadrupled, to 1.5%, lifting pre-tax profit to £6.3m, almost five times higher than the prior year. CEO Albert Ellis was cautious about the still subdued UK recruitment market (now 31% of revenues and 41% of OP), but seems chipper that business in continental Europe and the US will more than compensate.
There was a somewhat mixed story on Harvey Nash’s ‘sideline’ activities in IT services outsourcing and (Vietnam-based) offshoring. Ellis reported that UK outsourcing and offshoring increased by 44% (not sure yet whether that’s revenues or profits) but no underlying numbers were disclosed. However, revenues from the landmark November ’08 Alcatel-Lucent deal (see Harvey Nash wins its biggest outsourcing contract with Alcatel-Lucent) were down – as expected. But Ellis expects that a major deal signed a year ago (see New major offshore deal and Nordic expansion at Harvey Nash) and a new framework agreement signed in December will keep that business on track.