LONDON (Alliance News) - Staffing group Sthree PLC on Monday said its profit and revenue grew in the financial year to the end of November, with good performance in its IT and life sciences divisions offsetting challenges for its energy unit.
Sthree said its pretax profit for the year to November 30 was GBP37.7 million, up 29% from GBP29.3 million a year earlier, as its revenue grew 14% to GBP848.8 million from GBP746.9 million.
The group saw a good performance in its ICT and life sciences divisions, which helped to offset a decline in its gross profit from its energy business, which has been hit by the downturn in activity in the oil and gas industry following the plunge in world oil prices.
Contract and permanent gross profit both rose for the year, despite being held back somewhat by the declines in energy, and the group saw a continued improvement from its Americas business.
Sthree said it will pay a final dividend of 9.3 pence per share, flat year-on-year and leaving its total dividend payout at 14.0p, also flat.
"Our strong 2015 performance demonstrates the benefits of the geographic and sectoral diversity of our operations," said Gary Elden, Sthree's chief executive.
"While the trading environment remains broadly positive in the majority of our territories, we note that the global macro-economic uncertainties we identified in our last trading update have increased further recently, with greater risks to global growth. Oil & gas market conditions remain challenging and FX volatility persists," Elden added.
"Against this backdrop, we will continue to invest selectively in our high performing teams around the world to grow our business and capitalise on market opportunities, especially in Contract, ICT, Life Sciences and the Americas," he said.
Shares in Sthree were up 2.5% to 305.00p early Monday.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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