PageGroup says recruitment market got more difficult late in 2023

(Alliance News) - PageGroup PLC on Thursday reported slightly higher revenue in 2023, but profit dropped despite efforts at cost control by the recruitment firm, though PageGroup still increased its ordinary dividend.

Shares were up 0.1% in London following the announcement, at 457.80 pence.

Surrey, England-based PageGroup said pretax profit dropped by 40% to GBP117.4 million in 2023 from GBP194.4 million in 2022, even as revenue rose by 1.0% to GBP2.01 billion from GBP1.99 billion.

Gross profit declined by 6.3% to GBP1.01 billion last year from GBP1.08 billion in 2022. PageGroup said gross profit suffered toward the end of 2023 as economic uncertainty affected the sentiment of both employers and job candidates. This continued into January and February of the new year, it said.

In response to the "challenging market conditions" throughout 2023, PageGroup reduced fee earner headcount by 16% in 2023 from its peak in 2022. As a result, gross profit per fee earning, the company's measure of productivity, stayed flat on 2022.

PageGroup raised its final dividend by 4.5% to 11.24 pence from 10.76p a year before. This gave a full-year ordinary dividend of 16.37p, up 4.5% from 15.67p in 2022. However, including special dividends, the total payout from the company declined by 24% to 32.24p from 42.38p.

Chief Executive Officer Nicholas Kirk remained bullish. "We believe we will continue to perform well in the current challenging markets, and we are confident in our ability to implement our new strategy driving the long-term profitability of the group," he said.

By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor

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