EMPRESARIA GROUP PLC 11 August 2022
Empresaria Group plc ("Empresaria" or "Group")
Unaudited Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2022
Increase in adjusted operating profit and solid net fee income growth
Empresaria Group plc (AIM: EMR), the global specialist staffing group, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022.
Overview of the half year | ||||
% change | ||||
(constant | ||||
2022 | 2021 | % change | currency)2 | |
Revenue | £129.8m | £129.8m | +0% | +1% |
Net fee income | £32.6m | £28.4m | +15% | +15% |
Adjusted operating profit1 | £4.5m | £4.3m | +5% | +5% |
Operating profit | £3.8m | £2.7m | +41% | |
Adjusted profit before tax1 | £4.0m | £4.0m | +0% | |
Profit before tax | £3.3m | £2.4m | +38% | |
Adjusted, diluted earnings per share1 | 3.7p | 4.1p | -10% | |
Diluted earnings per share | 2.7p | 1.6p | +69% |
- Solid net fee income growth with benefits from diversification by geography and sector o Up 15% year-on-year to £32.6m
o Offshore services up 94% year-on-year
o Permanent placement revenue up 23% year-on-year
o Strong growth in Professional across the UK and APAC
o Offset by the expected reduction in Healthcare after record 2021 - Adjusted operating profit up 5% against prior year reflecting ongoing investment to drive future growth
- Adjusted, diluted earnings per share down 10% against prior year due to stronger performances from operations with a higher proportion of non-controlling interests
- Adjusted net debt reduced by £3.2m to £10.8m with headroom increased to £14.8m
- Targeted investment in headcount - Offshore Services up 36%, the rest of the Group up 5% compared to 31 December 2021
- Adjusted to exclude amortisation of intangible assets identified in business combinations, impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets, exceptional items, fair value charge on acquisition of non-controlling shares and, in the case of earnings, any related tax.
- The constant currency movement is calculated by translating the 2021 results at the 2022 exchange rates.
Chief Executive Officer, Rhona Driggs, commented:
"We are pleased to report solid growth in net fee income and further progress in growing our adjusted operating profit while continuing to invest in our operations. We are seeing the benefits of the investments we have made in our team, technology and broadening our service offerings, with early successes from our RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) offering in APAC. These are key to our future growth and the delivery of our medium-term adjusted operating profit target of £20m. In the second half of the year we will invest further in headcount to capitalise on current market demand and we will also expand our capacity in Offshore Services as we continue to see significant growth potential.
We are optimistic about the year ahead as the demand for talent is strong despite the global macroeconomic uncertainties. Given the diversified nature of our business and the strength of our new senior leadership team, we are confident we will continue to deliver on our strategic priorities and build
on the positive momentum we have seen in the first half. We expect profits for the full year to be in line with market expectations."
Investor presentation
In line with Empresaria's commitment to ensuring appropriate communication structures are in place for all shareholders, management will deliver an online presentation, available to all existing and potential shareholders, on the interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022 via the Investor Meet Company platform on Thursday 11 August 2022 at 4:30pm UK time.
Questions can be submitted pre-event through the platform or at any time during the live presentation. Management may not be in a position to answer every question it receives but will address those it can while remaining within the confines of information already disclosed to the market.
Q&A responses will be published at the earliest opportunity on the Investor Meet Company platform.
Investors can sign plc/register-investor.automatically invited.
up for free via:https://www.investormeetcompany.com/empresaria-group-Those who have already registered and requested to meet the Company will be
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the UK version of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (2014/596) which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended and supplemented from time to time.
- Ends -
Enquiries: | |
Empresaria Group plc | via Alma PR |
Rhona Driggs, Chief Executive Officer | |
Tim Anderson, Chief Financial Officer | |
Singer Capital Markets (Nominated Adviser and Broker) | 020 7496 3000 |
Shaun Dobson / James Moat | |
Alma PR (Financial PR) | 020 3405 0205 |
Sam Modlin | empresaria@almapr.com |
Hilary Buchanan |
The investor presentation of these results will be made available during the course of today on Empresaria's website: www.empresaria.com.
Notes for editors:
- Empresaria Group plc is a global specialist staffing group. We are driven by our purpose to positively impact the lives of people, while delivering exceptional talent to our clients globally. We offer temporary and contract recruitment, permanent recruitment and offshore services across six sectors: Professional, IT, Healthcare, Property, Construction & Engineering, Commercial and Offshore Services.
- Empresaria is structured in four regions (UK & Europe, APAC, Americas and Offshore Services) and operates from locations across the world including the four largest staffing markets of the US, Japan, UK and Germany along with a strong presence elsewhere in Asia Pacific and Latin America.
- Empresaria is listed on AIM under ticker EMR. For more information visit www.empresaria.com.
Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
This document may contain forward-looking statements which are made in good faith and are based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions about future events. You can sometimes, but not always, identify these statements by the use of a date in the future or such words as "will", "anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "project", "intend", "plan", "should", "may", "assume" and other similar words. By their nature, forward-looking statements are inherently predictive and speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. Except as required by applicable law or regulation, Empresaria undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Finance and operating review
The Group has delivered a 15% year-on-year increase in net fee income to £32.6m in the first half of 2022, with adjusted operating profit growing by 5% to £4.5m. This performance has been driven by a number of factors as set out below.
Excellent growth in Offshore Services
Our Offshore Services region has continued to go from strength to strength and delivered the largest profit contribution of any of our regions in H1. Headcount at 30 June 2022 increased by 36% compared to 31 December 2021 and is now more than 2,700. Our Offshore Services operation has two locations in India and a newly opened centre in the Philippines, with its client base primarily in the US and the UK. In 2022 we have seen very strong growth from our UK clients with billable headcount up by a third during H1. The pace of our growth with US clients has slowed with a reduction from healthcare recruitment clients offsetting growth elsewhere. However, our US pipeline remains strong and we are seeing increasing demand for services out of our Philippines location. In H2 we will be investing in our infrastructure in India to further increase our headcount capacity to enable us to enter the next phase of growth.
Ongoing benefits from diversification
Our diversification by geography and sector continues to deliver benefits to the Group. As well as growth in Offshore Services we saw strong performances across APAC in our Professional and IT operations, in the UK in our Professional operations and in Germany in our logistics business. Demand in many of our markets has been strong, particularly for permanent placements where net fee income increased by 23% year-on-year.
These positive performances more than offset any challenges elsewhere. As expected, Healthcare decreased compared to 2021 when our operations benefitted from significant COVID-19 vaccination and testing related demand. More challenging conditions were also experienced by our temporary staffing operation in Germany, which has been impacted by client supply chain issues alongside increased sickness levels which has reduced our margins.
Operational investments continue and are delivering benefits
As communicated in our annual report, we have been investing in growing our sales and recruiting teams in operations where we see significant opportunities for growth. Excluding Offshore Services, our headcount has increased by 5% from 31 December 2021. Hiring in certain markets has proven to be challenging due to the lack of available talent and increased salary expectations for those willing to move, however we have seen a recent increase in hiring particularly in APAC. In addition, we have made good progress in supplementing our recruitment teams with our offshore resources.
We have continued with our technology investment with three further operations going live on our front office system in H1. We are starting to realise benefits from this investment as we continue to focus on adoption and embedding improved operational processes. The roll-out will continue in H2 alongside parallel investments in complementary technology to help maximise productivity.
We are also investing in expanding our service offering and have seen early success in delivering RPO, particularly in our APAC region.
Outlook
We have made a solid start to 2022 and remain on track to deliver full year results in line with market expectations.
Global macroeconomic uncertainties are increasing and the impact of growing inflation in many of our markets is yet to be fully realised. However, we have yet to see any significant adverse impact and demand from clients remains strong.
We have set an ambitious target of delivering adjusted operating profit of £20m in the medium term and we will be updating on our plans to achieve this in due course.
Regional Performance
As announced in last year's annual report, following the appointment of regional leaders during 2021 the Group has moved to a regional reporting structure.
Adjusted operating profit by region: | ||||
6 months | 6 months | |||
ended | ended | % change | ||
30 June | 30 June | (constant | ||
£'m | 2022 | 2021 | % change | currency) |
UK & Europe | 2.0 | 2.5 | -20% | -20% |
APAC | 0.5 | 0.5 | +0% | +0% |
Americas | 0.8 | 1.7 | -53% | -56% |
Offshore Services | 3.5 | 1.8 | +94% | +94% |
Central costs | (2.3) | (2.2) | +5% | +5% |
Total | 4.5 | 4.3 | +5% | +5% |
Performance in each of the regions is analysed below.
This is an excerpt of the original content. To continue reading it, access the original document here.
Attachments
- Original Link
- Original Document
- Permalink
Disclaimer
Empresaria Group plc published this content on 11 August 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 15 August 2022 09:42:01 UTC.
