Robert Walters PLC (LSE:RWA) emerged as an outlier among Britain’s major recruitment firms after saying profits will be in line with market expectations.
That is not to say the recruiter’s results were outstanding; net fee income was down 10% “reflecting the continued challenging macroeconomic conditions across many of the group's markets”, while employee headcount fell 9% year on year, reflecting nearly 400 job cuts.
But Robert Walters’ results were comparatively good against fellow recruitment mid-cap Hays PLC (LSE:HAS), which delivered a profit warning on Tuesday after undershooting market expectations with a 12% decline in group fees.
Jefferies analysts said Robert Walters’ fourth quarter trading update had a “very different tone to Hays… The group evidently has not experienced the weak December in France and Germany highlighted by Hays”.
Liberum agreed, stating that “Robert Walters has not seen the sequential weakening in December that Hays saw, we think reflecting geographic exposure”.
It’s also worth noting that Robert Walters also has a more sophisticated client base than Hays, with its wheelhouse firmly into the professional services arena compared to Hays’ focus on blue-collar employment.
Attention now turns to PageGroup PLC (LSE:PAGE), whose results are due on Monday, 15 January.
PageGroup is the middle child of Britain’s top-three recruiters, with more of a focus on permanent employment compared to Robert Walters and Hays.
This could be a headwind for PageGroup; growth in temporary recruitment remained stronger than permanent in the last quarter, which, as stated by PageGroup itself, “is indicative of the current uncertainty in the market with many clients seeking more flexible options”.