They may be shilly-shallying over the name change, but not on the business strategy. Management at UK-headquartered international recruitment firm PageGroup (aka Michael Page International) still has its sights firmly set on organic growth in emerging markets and in the US as the means to counter the headwinds in the UK and Europe.
As such PageGroup closed H1 (to 30th June) with headline revenues flat at £503m (about 1% down in constant currency) though the gross margin lost 250bps to 52.0%. Headcount cuts and trimming of SG&A saw operating profits rise 14% to £32.1m, lifting the operating margin by 80bps to 6.4%. UK revenues were also flat (£146m) as were gross margins (42%). France and Germany remained a challenge (see France, Germany challenges 'robust' Michael Page). In contrast, revenues in South East Asia (i.e. Asia-Pac excluding rather troubled Australasia) and The Americas grew by 11% to £95m, while operating profit grew by nearly 40%. Revenues from PageGroup’s Legal, Technology, HR etc activities grew by 6% to £115.8m though gross margins fell 3 points to 47%.
The overarching message from CEO Steve Ingham was for continued ‘difficult conditions’ – which tends to favour contract placement over permanent hires – though he was expecting to make the FY operating profit number.