SThree PLC shares jumped on Monday after the specialist staffing company raised its full-year profit outlook due to an ‘excellent’ performance in its first half that was enabled by growth in its largest markets.

Shares in SThree were up 5.6% at 336.85 pence each on Monday morning in London.

In the six months to May 31, net fees increased 25% to £203.1 million from £164.3 million the year before.

Net fees in its second quarter grew 23% year-on-year.

The London-based firm attributed this to ‘very strong’ growth in its largest markets, namely Germany, the US and Netherlands, with growth of 22%, 21% and 41% respectively. The company also credited this to strong double digit growth in its key sectors of Technology, Life Sciences and Engineering.

As a result of its ‘strong performance’ the company said it is currently trading ahead of market expectations for the year ending November 30.

It expects its full-year pretax profit to be at least 5% ahead of market consensus.

In financial 2021, the company generated a pretax profit of £60.2 million. The current management-compiled consensus expects a profit of £66.2 million for financial 2022.

SThree described its balance sheet as ‘robust’ with net cash of £48 million as at May 31, unchanged from a year before.

‘Our group has delivered another excellent quarter of growth, driven by successes across all key regions and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. As a result of this strong performance, we are now trading ahead of market expectations for the 2022 full year,’ Chief Executive Timo Lehne commented.

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