Brunel drops on soft Q4, slower start to 2024 due to weak Germany
23/02/2024 09:22
** Shares in Brunel International BRUN.AS drop 6.5% after
the Dutch staffing group flagged a slower start to 2024 on
weakness in its German business
** Brunel says it started 2024 with high single-digit
percent revenue growth and expects that trend to continue,
dragged by the slow German market; its 2023 revenue grew 13% on
a reported basis
** The company flags lower productivity in the DACH region
on more vacation taken and slightly higher bench and illness,
resulting in a weaker regional Q4 gross margin of 31.6%, 166
basis points below ING's forecast
** It posts 13% drop in Q4 underlying EBIT to 15.5 million
euros ($16.8 million) vs ING estimate of 15.6 million, and
revenue of 344.2 million vs 351.2 million expected by the broker
** "The earnings risk is mainly geared to Germany as we have
modelled in still 4% revenue growth for FY24F while 1Q24 seems
to trend more around flat to low single digit including wage
inflation," ING says
** The stock is on track for its worst day since early
November if losses hold
($1 = 0.9237 euros)
(Reporting by Michal Aleksandrowicz)
((michal.aleksandrowicz@tr.com))