SThree, an international staffing business and FTSE 250 constituent, fell 4.4 percent to 178 per share after the group released interim results for the six months ended 31 May 2009.
Group revenues slipped 5% year on year to £280.6 million, while basic earnings per share before exceptional items declined year on year by 46.6 percent to 6.3p and by 89.8 percent after exceptional items to 1.1p. SThree slashed 25% of its workforce in Q2 2009, which represented a significant portion of the exceptional items.
Average permanents placement fees increased by 17.3 percent to £11,838, while 3,302 placements took place, a 34.1 percent decline. The number of active contractors was reduced to 4,494, 21.8 percent less than in the previous year, while the contract margin slightly increased to 22.5, a 1.1 percent change from 2008.
The net cash position improved to £43.9 million from £3.9 million in 2008.
SThree did however report a strong performance at its international business, which grew by 20 percent in terms of gross profit. At the same time, the UK business declined significantly, with gross profit down 29 percent to £42.6 million. SThree’s non-UK gross profit represented 54 percent of the total, up from last year’s 45. SThree has expanded its international operations by opening offices in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Singapore.
Interim dividend remained at the same level as in 2008 at 4.0p.
CEO Russell Clements considered this performance to be satisfactory, highlighting the challenging environment SThree has had to operate in and the steps the business took to shield the economic downturn.
“Whilst we took decisive restructuring action in the period to align our cost base with the market opportunity, we also continue to invest for the future - expanding our international network into new territories and adding or growing new disciplines such as Legal, Sales & Marketing and Public Sector,” said Russell.
'With a strong cash position and healthy balance sheet the Group is well positioned to ride out the current downturn and capture the opportunities of the recovery when it arrives,” added Russell
SThree stated they were in the position to continue “supporting robust attitude towards dividend payment.”
The group said it was pleased with the healthy cash position it was in and hoped for a rapid recovery, referring to its record of bouncing back from downturns.