LONDON (Alliance News) - Recruitment company Hydrogen Group PLC on Tuesday said it swung to a pretax loss in 2015 following a fall in revenue and net fee income.
Hydrogen said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December was GBP6.2 million, compared to a GBP400,000 profit the year earlier. The group said it will not pay a dividend, having paid out 4.6 pence per share in 2014.
Revenue fell to GBP122.8 million from GBP169.4 million, as net fee income dropped 34%, or 33% on a like-for-like basis. Hydrogen said it was hurt by its exposure to recruiting for oil and gas industry clients, where spending has been severely constrained by the collapse in the oil price.
Hydrogen also shifted focus to its contract business in 2015, a lower-margin revenue driver, but said it expects this will create a more robust business model in the medium term.
"Hydrogen's plan for 2016 is to remain focused on sustainable, profitable business. Having invested and re-focused the business during 2015 we are beginning to see growth in our international contractor numbers which should provide a base for all of our international offices to be profitable in 2016," said Chairman Stephen Puckett.
Hydrogen has offices outside the UK in Houston, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Perth and Sydney, as well as in Zug, Switzerland.
"Hydrogen has been through a difficult period of restructuring and cost reductions. The group is now firmly focused on its core opportunities," he added.
Hydrogen shares were down 1.9% to 26.00 pence Tuesday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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