Overview
The Group is pleased to report strong uplift in Operating Profit to £1.06m in the first half of this year compared to £0.63m achieved in the comparable period last year. The growth in the period has been generated from our permanent business, which represents 92% of Net Fee Income (NFI) compared to 93% in the comparable period of 2014. During the period our contract recruitment business has grown by 32%.
The improvement in performance highlighted in our 2015 Annual Report has continued throughout the current period. NFI in the period for the Group is £6.21m which is a 24% increase on last year (2014: £5.00m). There were a number of strong NFI performances in both the UK and Asia. In the UK NFI increased by 22% from £3.2m to £3.9m and in Asia NFI increased by 36% from £1.4m to £1.9m.
Financial Results
Group revenue increased by 27.5% for the period to £10.2m (2014: £8.0m)
Administrative costs for the group have increased from £4.4m in 2014 to £5.2m in the current period which is in part a consequence of higher commission paid to consultants for improved performance and in part an uplift in fee earning head-count of the Group.
Profit before taxation for the period has increased to £1.06m (2014: £0.64m)
The charge for taxation is based on the expected annual effective tax rate of 20% (2014: 21%).
Basic earnings per share for the period increased to 6.97p (2014: 4.17p).
Cash Flow
The Group continues to maintain a strong net cash position.
After taxation payments of £0.20m (2014: £0.01m) cash generated from operations was £1.00m (2014: £0.37m). A special second interim dividend was paid in April 2015 of £0.49m, and a final dividend for 2015 of £0.38m was paid in June 2015 (2014: £0.38m). At the end of the period the Group had net cash of £1.04m (2014: £1.11m)
Dividend
The Board has declared an interim dividend of 1.75p (2015: 1.75p) together with a special second interim dividend of 4.00p (2015: 4.00p). Both, interim and special dividend will be paid on 27 November 2015 to those shareholders whose names are on the register on 20 November 2015.
Outlook
We have expectations that the UK businesses will perform at least at similar levels to the first half of the year. We are looking for continued improved performance from our businesses in Asia which we believe will provide us with increased opportunities for growth in the mid to long term. We continue to have conservative expectations as to the likely performance from our businesses in the Rest of the World. We believe we are well positioned to capitalise on both current and future growth opportunities.
The present focus for the Group is to maximize the returns from recent investment in technology and to increase productivity of the business. We continue to recruit new heads into those markets where there is potential for NFI and profit growth.
