HYDG.L Regulatory News (HYDG)

3 Jul 2007 07:01

Hydrogen Group PLC03 July 2007 3 July 2007 HYDROGEN GROUP PLC AGM STATEMENT At today's Annual General Meeting of Hydrogen Group Plc ("Hydrogen" or "TheGroup") one of the UK's fastest growing specialist recruitment companies, IanTemple, Executive Chairman, will make the following statement: "I am pleased to report that your Company continues to make strong progress withgood organic growth generated across our specialist brands, in line with theBoard's plans. Recent independent market research conducted for Hydrogen showed 80% ofemployers ranking recruitment and retention of staff the number one priority.Over 60% of employers stated that it was hard to find quality candidates andover half named demographics as the key factor behind this. Hydrogen's leadingmarket position in the mid to senior level professional segments of our targetmarkets has positioned us well to benefit from this. As a result, the Group hasseen record activity in interviews and placings, with particularly strong growthin the Legal, Contract Business Technology and Sales disciplines. Our proven strategy of focusing on high growth market sectors, cross selling ourbrands and launching new brands has allowed us to out grow the market. This hasresulted in a NFI growth of 21% to £16.8m (H1 2006 £13.9m) which coupled withstrong cost control will underpin profit growth for the first half. The profitsgenerated and strong control of working capital has resulted in good cashgeneration for the period. Eurisko, our ninth brand, focusing on derivative specialists, is now fullyestablished and performing in line with our expectations. Trading conditions remain favourable and the underlying growth drivers for ourbusiness are robust. The Board therefore remains confident of delivering goodresults for the current year and making further progress in line with itsexpectations." Enquiries: Hydrogen Group Plc 020 7240 2500Ian Temple, Executive Chairman Oriel Securities 020 7710 7600Andrew Edwards Hudson Sandler 020 7796 4133Kate Hough NOTES TO EDITORS: Introduction Hydrogen is a specialist recruitment consultancy, focused on mid to seniorprofessional talent hires to financial and Commerce services. The Group has nineniche consultancies being Project Partners, Commerce Partners, Target Partners,Finance Professionals, Audit Professionals, Law Professionals, HR Professionals,and Eurisko specialising in recruitment within their disciplines and Reflect, ahuman resources outsourcing consultancy. The Group services a wide range of blue chip and smaller corporate clients,including UBS, the BBC, BNP Paribas and Carphone Warehouse. History Hydrogen was formed in November 2005 when PRO (established 1997) and PartnersGroup (established 2000) were acquired and formally brought together by theexisting management teams, to give greater critical mass and a platform tomaximise the opportunities in the recruitment market place. Both businesses havewon numerous awards, individually being listed in the Sunday Times VirginAtlantic Fast Track 100. The company has a strong track record of profitableorganic growth. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange