5 May 2016 07:00
Impellam Group plc
("Impellam" or the "Group")
Q1 Trading update
Impellam, a leading provider of managed services and specialist staffing expertise, today provides a trading update for the first quarter of the current financial year to 1st April 2016.
The Group performed strongly in Q1. The integration of the recently acquired Global Group and Bartech businesses is proceeding as planned and both businesses are performing well.
Overall net fee income increased by 27.2% compared with the same period in 2015 (7.5% organic growth), with a particularly strong performance in temporary staffing and managed services offsetting slight weakness in permanent placement fees. The latter represented only 11.2% of the net fee income in the quarter. The conversion of net fee income into earnings before interest and tax ("EBIT") was 22.6% in Q1, up from 16.4% in Q1 FY15, leaving the Group well placed to achieve a key strategic objective of conversion of net fee income into EBIT of 25% in FY17. Net debt at the end of Q1 was lower than management expectations and we continue to focus on cash generation to deliver significant deleveraging by the end of FY16.
Whilst the junior doctors' strikes in the UK have had an impact in Q1, our UK healthcare business has responded positively to the introduction of caps on doctors' and nurses' rates and this performance, combined with our growth internationally following the acquisition of Global Group, means that we are confident that our healthcare business will perform better than we originally expected in 2016.
We have recently implemented several new managed service wins including Airbus through Guidant and Daisy and Wonga through Lorien in the UK and are implementing a number of contracts in Australia through our Comensura business. The pipeline of opportunities across all our managed service businesses remains strong.
Overall, we remain on track to deliver results for the full year in line with management's expectations, with the strong Q1 performance underpinning the Board's confidence in the prospects for the Group.
For further information please contact:
Impellam Group plc
Julia Robertson, Chief Executive Tel: + 44 (0)1582 692658
Darren Mee, Group Finance Director
Cenkos Securities plc (NOMAD and Joint Corporate Broker to Impellam)
Nicholas Wells Tel: +44 (0)20 7397 8900
Mark Connelly
Investec Bank plc (Joint Corporate Broker to Impellam)
Chris Treneman Tel: +44 (0)207 597 4000
James Rudd
Josh Levy
Note to Editors:
Impellam Group plc, traded on AIM (Symbol: IPEL) is a leading provider of managed services and specialist staffing expertise and is primarily based in the UK and North America, with smaller operations in Asia Pacific, Ireland and mainland Europe. Impellam Group plc provides fulfilling jobs at all levels, including doctors, lawyers, accountants, nurses, teachers, scientists, receptionists, drivers, chefs, administrators, engineers, technology specialists, cleaners, security guards, and manufacturing and warehouse operatives. Impellam Group plc is the 2nd largest staffing business in the UK and 12th largest worldwide, employing over 3,100 people across 220 worldwide locations.