Michael Page H1 Pre-tax Profit Up; Sees Challenging Q3; Stock Falls

(RTTNews) - Recruitment firm Michael Page International Plc. (MPGPF.PK, MPI.L) Tuesday reported higher pre-tax profit for the first half of the year, but warned of a challenging third quarter. The stock was falling more than 4 percent in early morning trade.

Pre-tax profit rose to 32.02 million pounds from last year's 28.24 million pounds. The prior-year results included 7.85 million pounds in exceptional items.

Excluding items, pre-tax profit was 32.0 million pounds ($49.5 million) while it totaled 36.1 million pounds last year.

Profit attributable to owners of the parent climbed to 21.45 million pounds from 18.77 million pounds. Earnings per share totaled 7.0 pence, up from 6.1 pence in the prior year.

The company noted that the business is profitable in all established markets.

Group revenue edged up 0.1 percent to 503.25 million pounds from 502.63 million pounds. Revenue slid 0.9 percent at constant exchange rates.

Steve Ingham, CEO, said, "Activity levels remained strong throughout the second quarter, but with difficult conditions likely to continue in several markets and as this is the seasonally quieter summer period in both Continental Europe and the UK, we expect Q3 will be another challenging quarter...''

At this time, Ingham expects full-year operating profit from trading activities to be in line with current market estimates.

Further, the board decided to maintain the interim dividend at 3.25 pence per share, payable on October 4 to shareholders on the register at September 6.

The stock is falling 4.7 percent in early morning trade at 447 pence.