LONDON (Alliance News) - Recruitment company Empresaria Group PLC Thursday reported an increase in pretax profit for the first half, but said its results have been affected by a challenging market in Continental Europe.
The company, which provides temporary and permanent staff to businesses, posted pretax profit of GBP1.6 million for the period ended 30 June 2013, up from GBP1.4 million last year.
However, revenue declined 2% to GBP95.6 million, from GBP97.8 million in 2012, as temporary staffing revenue decreased 3%. This was despite permanent staffing revenue increasing 7%.
Empresaria said there was a 11% decline in revenue from its Continental Europe arm, which has predominantly temporary revenue, as 2012 included a significant one-off temp-to-perm fee in Finland that did not recur in 2013.
Revenue for the company's rest-of-the-world division increased to GBP23.4 million, from GBP20.8 million, while its UK arm posted revenue of GBP33.6 million, down slightly from GBP33.7 million in 2012.
Empresaria said net fee income decreased 7% to GBP20.9 million, compared with GBP22.4 million, while net debt increased to GBP8.9 million from GBP8.5 million.
The board did not recommend the payment of an interim dividend for the period.
Empresaria Group PLC shares were trading 32.50 pence Thursday morning down 2.00 pence, or 5.8%.
By Anthony Tshibangu; anthonytshibangu@alliancenews.com; @AnthonyAllNews
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Empresaria Group (EMR)