(Correcting year-earlier pretax profit figure.)
LONDON (Alliance News) - Recruitment consultancy Penna Consulting PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit and revenue both surged in the first half as it benefits from the continuing recovery in the UK economy.
Penna said its pretax profit for the half to the end of September was GBP2.3 million, up 36% from the GBP1.7 million it made a year earlier. Operating profit improved to GBP2.8 million from GBP2.1 million.
Gross revenue for the group rose 15% to GBP47.0 million from GBP41.0 million, while net revenue rose to GBP25.0 million from GBP21.0 million. The net revenue growth was driven by Penna's Recruitment Solutions division, where net revenue increased 25%, while its Career Services consultancy unit saw net revenue increase 8.0%.
Penna said it would pay an interim dividend of 4.0 pence per share, double the 2.0p it paid out a year earlier, thanks to the strong first half results.
"As the UK economy continues to grow, we are seeing a significant rise in clients' expenditure on recruitment and other HR projects. Penna continues with impressive momentum, and we remain confident of the outlook for the group. We now believe that profit for the year will be ahead of management's original expectations, and we are doubling the interim dividend," said Stephen Rowlinson, Penna's chairman.
Penna shares were up 6.6% to 276.20p on Tuesday afternoon.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
