- Net fee income down 12%
- Weakness in France and Germany
- Full-year profit target confirmed
Shares in PageGroup (PAGE) fell over 3% to 258p in morning trading as the recruiter reported a disappointing set of results for the six months ending 30 June.
The company reported a 12.3% fall in half-year net fee income to £389.7 million compared with £444.1 million last year due to ‘subdued levels of client and candidate confidence.’
Operating profit plunged 92% from £28.4 million to £2.1 million although most of the hit came from a one-off charge of £13 million for ‘restructuring and transformation’.
However, the firm said it still expected full-year operating profit to be broadly in line with the current market consensus of circa £22 million.
WHAT DID THE CEO SAY?
Chief executive Nicholas Kirk said: ‘The group delivered a resilient performance in the first half despite ongoing macro-economic uncertainty.
‘Whilst activity levels remained robust across most of our markets, we experienced a slight deterioration in activity levels and trading in continental Europe towards the end of the period, particularly in our two largest markets, France and Germany. Elsewhere, we saw some improvement in activity, trading and customer confidence in Asia and the US.
‘Against the ongoing challenging trading conditions, we have taken robust action to optimise our cost base by simplifying our management structure, reducing our leadership team and improving the efficiency of our business support functions.
‘These initiatives will incur a one-off cost of circa £15 million in 2025, of which circa £13 million was incurred in the first half. These initiatives will deliver annualised savings of circa £15 million per annum from 2026.’
PEER GROUP UNDER PRESSURE
PageGroup’s half year performance is not surprising as the recruitment sector has been having an awful 2025.
Recruitment firm Hays (HAS) warned in a pre-close trading update in June that earnings would miss forecasts due to lower hiring activity by clients and said it expected current market conditions would persist into the financial year ending in June 2026.
Another UK rival, Robert Walters (RWA), canceled its interim dividend in July saying ‘market conditions remained challenging during the first half’ and it saw ‘no material improvement in hiring markets in the near term.’
