Shares in international staffing group Empresaria Group Plc (LON:EMR) shot up by 15% to 45.5p in early trade today after the company reported that revenues, net fee income and profit in the first five months of the year were materially ahead of last year. The company said the figures were currently ahead of management expectations with all three of its reporting regions – the UK, Continental Europe and the rest of the world – showing year on year growth. As a result, it is predicting that full year profits will be materially ahead of current market expectations.

The improvement was welcomed by investors who last year had to bear a 6% dip in revenues to £195.2m and a pre-tax loss of £3.4m as Empresaria battled with difficult market conditions. In response, the company focused on achieving a balanced geographical focus with a strong emphasis on temporary staffing operations in order to boost its presence in higher growth economies and fend off the cyclical nature of some of its markets. In its AGM this afternoon, the company is set to tell shareholders that the strategy has alleviated some of the downward pressure on revenues and margins in 2009 and is now demonstrating its benefit in 2010.

Revenues for the current financial year to April, excluding discontinued operations, are 17% up on the same period in 2009 and net fee income is up 24% on the same period. These volume increases are understood to have been driven largely by growth in temporary staffing revenues in the UK and Germany along with growing demand for a combination of staffing and HR services offered by group companies in Asia. In addition, the UK operations have experienced an increase in permanent recruitment activity, a trend that may well be more transitory given the uncertainty as to the outlook for the UK economy.

Elsewhere, group profitability is much improved as a consequence of higher sales volumes, improved gross margin percentages and the effect of cost reductions made in the UK and Continental Europe during 2009. In addition, the group is now benefiting from increased profit contribution from its rapidly maturing and fast growing portfolio of Asian companies that commenced trading as start up operations over recent years.

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