Staffer PageGroup (PAGE) reported a 10% rise in first quarter gross profits on Wednesday (11 April) thanks to International growth.
But the UK continues to struggle, putting the share price under pressure, down about 2% to 539p. The UK is worth about 18% of group gross profit so it matters.
The company admits that Brexit continues to impact hiring decisions.
There is better news elsewhere, however. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operation - it's biggest and which generates half of all gross profit - gross profits jumped 18.2% to £94.7m.
Eight separate regions within the EMEA unit hit new records, the company says.
No details of pre-tax profit ere given, although the market anticipates about £118m for 2017.
ANALYST UPBEAT
‘Page looks the best staffing play at this moment in our view,' say RBC analyst. 'It has the best geographic spread and has seen strong growth acceleration’.
Macroeconomic wobbles are likely to remain the biggest challenge to navigate. RBC says it is leaving forecasts unchanged for now, but will adjust its estimates as the year progresses.
Consensus is for £135m of pre-tax profit this year to 31 December 2018, on £1.46bn of headline revenue.
