Hays net fees, profit edge up on strong performance in Europe

Pre-tax profit edged up 7% to £82.4m while net fees were up 8% from a year earlier to £396.9m.

Operating profit came in at £86.3m compared with £81.5m and the company lifted its dividend per share by 5% to 0.91p.

Chief executive Alistair Cox said: "This is a strong first half performance as we converted good 8% net fee growth into 15% profit growth. Market conditions remained good in many areas, particularly Europe, but growth slowed toward the end of the half in the UK and Australia as increased global uncertainty impacted sentiment.

“Against this backdrop, we successfully balanced further investment with improved business efficiency to deliver excellent operating leverage and a further improvement in our sector leading conversion of net fees into profits.”

Although the company was impacted by weakness in the euro, France and Germany saw strong net fee growth of 14% and 12%, respectively. This helped to offset a much softer performance in the UK and Ireland, where net fee growth was 3%. Net fees also grew 3% in Australia.

Looking ahead, Hays said it was mindful of increasing global uncertainties, but remained positive, highlighting many opportunities to grow.

"Our business has the scale, diversity, people and technology to capture the many long-term opportunities available to us, while at the same time being nimble enough to respond to fast-changing conditions to maximise profit and cash generation along the way," said Cox.