International business drives quarterly growth at Hays

The FTSE 250 company said its operations in Australia and New Zealand saw “good growth” of 8% despite tough comparatives, led by strong growth in temporary positions of 11%, and of 1% in permanent position.

In Germany, the firm saw “strong performance” as well, with net fees up 15%, 12% when adjusted for working days, despite increasingly tough comparatives.

Temp and contracting grew 13%, with “excellent” perm growth of 26% reported.

Hays’ UK & Ireland operations saw “solid growth” of 3%, with temp up 4% and perm up 3%.

Public sector net fees rose 12%, which the board said were helped in part by easier comparatives, while net fees in its private sector business were flat.

For the rest of world operations, the company saw “strong” net fee growth of 10% against tough comparatives, including eight quarterly records.

The board reported “excellent” growth in China and Canada, up 33% and 28% respectively, with the US delivering strong 10% growth.

France grew by 3%, with Spain up a decent 19%.

Group consultant headcount rose 2% in the quarter, which was in line with the board’s expectations, while total headcount rose 7% year-on-year, led by Hays’ international business, which saw growth of 10%.

Cash performance was described as “good”, with Hays saying that after paying £112.9m of special and final dividends in November, it ended the second quarter with around £30m of cash.

That was down from £80m on 30 September, and £34.5m on 31 December 2017.

“We have delivered another good quarter of broad-based growth, with net fees up 9% and 17 of our 33 countries growing above 10%,” said chief executive officer Alistair Cox.

“Against increasingly tough comparatives, our International businesses grew net fees by 11%.

“Encouragingly, Germany - our largest market - delivered a strong 15%, and Australia and New Zealand recorded its 18th consecutive quarter of growth.”

Cox noted that the rest of world geography continued to perform strongly, with “excellent” growth in China and Canada, and strong growth in the US.

He also said the UK and Ireland business produced “another solid performance”, with 3% net fee growth, despite continued economic uncertainties.

“While activity levels at the start of the New Year will be an important driver of the group's second half performance, and we remain mindful of macroeconomic conditions, the outlook is good across most International markets.

“We continue to invest in key structural growth markets like Germany, the US and Asia, capitalising on the clear opportunities we are seeing.

“Our diverse and balanced global business, together with our highly experienced management teams, mean we look to the future with confidence.”