LONDON (Alliance News) - International specialist staffing company Empresaria Group PLC said on Thursday that first-half trading has positioned the company well to meet market expectations for all of 2016.
Net fee income increased around 13% year-on-year, with the company seeing strong trading in Germany, Japan, India, Chile, and China. The company's investment in US based Pharmaceutical Strategies also performed in line with Empresaria's expectations.
Empresaria said there was a slowdown in the UK business during May and June, as business confidence dropped in the run up to the UK's referendum on European Union membership. However, the impact of this was mitigated by stronger trading internationally, it said.
Following the UK's vote to leave the EU, the UK business stabilised, and Empresaria said its sales pipelines are "holding up well". The company said its position as a "globally diversified business" should enable it to manage the effects of a slowdown in the UK.
While the company is monitoring the short-term outlook for the UK, it sees strong growth opportunities and should benefit from the weakening of the pound.
"We have delivered another strong performance in the first half year, showing the benefits of our strategy of building a multi-branded group that is diversified and balanced by geography and sector. Whilst there is general uncertainty in the UK markets, this accounts for less than a third of our business and we see strong growth opportunities across our group," said Joost Kreulen, Empresaria chief executive.
Shares in Empresaria were up 6.5% Thursday morning at 90.01 pence.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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Empresaria Group (EMR)