‘Landmark’ year for recruiter Hays fails to do the job for City

THE boss of recruiter Hays has hailed a “landmark” set of results and raised dividends, despite uncertainty about Brexit weighing on hiring in the UK.

Hays, the UK’S biggest recruiter by value, posted a 17pc rise in pre-tax profit for the year to June 30, at £238.5m, while net fees rose 12pc to a record £1.07bn.

Alistair Cox, the chief executive of Hays, said it was a “landmark year” and pointed to its performance and prospects for growth outside of the UK.

“We’ve massively globalised the business in the last decade,” he said, adding that 80pc of profits now come from outside the UK. The company operates in 33 countries.

The UK and Ireland business reported just 2pc net fee growth against a 13pc rise in operating profit. The German division had a record 16pc net fee rise, while in Australia and New Zealand the increase was 14pc.

For Hays’s operations in the rest of the world, net fees were up 17pc compared with last year.

Mr Cox said: “There’s a heck of a lot of positives. I think the biggest positive though is, when you look at white collar recruitment around the world, there’s only really three markets where that’s a relatively mature service and that’s the UK, Australia and the US. So the structural opportunities to open up Germany, Japan, South America, Asia, most of Europe … are absolutely huge.”

Uncertainty about the outcome of Brexit negotiations has weighed on many of the UK’S largest recruiters as some companies delayed hiring. Mr Cox said: “The UK has been a tough market for the last 12 months and longer, but the good news is it’s been a stable market for the last year.”

He said that there was a lot of confidence among employees in the UK, against a backdrop of high employment, while companies were “very willing” to replace good staff.

“Where there is an issue, is that there is a distinct lack of confidence about taking major investment decisions … so that obviously puts a little bit of a dampener on confidence in the UK.”

The FTSE 250 company raised its special and core dividends by 18pc each to 5p and 3.81p respectively.

Despite the bumper set of results, shares in Hays fell 4.3pc to end the day at 194p.

This could be due to the weaker UK business and an aggressive investment plan, although, as analyst David Madden of CMC Markets pointed out, the company “has a rude cash flow position, and therefore it has the ability to keep expanding in growing regions”.

£1.07bn Record net fees for Hays, posting a rise of 12pc in the year to June 30. The recruiter reported a 17pc rise in pre-tax profit