Amsterdam, Thursday, April 27, 2006
Strong margin improvement drives growth in operating income in Q1 2006
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Highlights for Q1 2006
*Organic growth is measured by excluding the impact of currency effects, acquisitions and disposals.
 | Operating income in France increased by 31% |
 | Operating income in the Netherlands more than doubled |
 | Strong growth in sales and profits in North America and Australia |
 | Increase in gross margin to 18.4% (Q1 2005: 17.5%) |
CEO’s Statement
Zach Miles said,
“I am pleased that we have achieved such strong increases in operating income in two of our key markets; France and the Netherlands.
The results for the first quarter reaffirm the encouraging trends we identified towards the end of 2005 and bode well for the remainder of the year.
With double digit sales growth in four out of our six major regions, we see good leverage benefiting our bottom line as a result of improved business mix and operating efficiency. At the same time, gross margins have increased providing added impetus to our profitability.
The start of the year has also seen us make excellent progress with our acquisition programme with the addition of three leading professional/executive companies to our portfolio of specialist brands.”
Q1 2006 Operational Review
All growth percentages within this Operational Review have been calculated on an organic basis which excludes the impact of currency effects, acquisitions and disposals.
As in the final quarter of 2005, the main drivers of Vedior’s growth this quarter were the strong recovery in the Netherlands and other parts of continental Europe, continuing growth in the US, Australian and Latin American markets combined with rapid expansion in newer markets such as India and Eastern Europe. The quarterly comparison also benefited from the change in the timing of Easter.
In France, sales grew by 6%. Changes in business mix and growing permanent placement revenue contributed to a 31% improvement in operating income.
In the UK, operating income was unchanged while sales increased by 1%. Most professional/executive recruitment sectors exhibited good growth particularly accounting, engineering, legal and interim management sectors. Education sales increased by 17% due to late Easter school holidays. Traditional recruitment remains weak with the light industrial market most impacted.
In the US, we achieved further improvement in operating income with 21% growth this quarter on the back of a sales increase of 13%. Professional/executive sales grew by 10% with good performances from our accounting, IT and healthcare businesses. Once again, traditional recruitment developed strongly in niche sectors with 29% sales growth. Our managed service brand also made good progress.
In the Netherlands, operating income increased by 122%. Overall, sales grew by 22% amidst improving economic sentiment and an improving pricing environment. Professional/executive recruitment sales grew by 13% with exceptionally strong demand for finance and accounting personnel, and good performances from our IT, education and interim management brands. Traditional staffing sales grew by 25% with the emphasis placed on developing higher margin business.
In Vedior’s ‘Rest of Europe’ region, operating income increased by 84% and sales were up 12%. Good performances were achieved in most markets, particularly Belgium, Switzerland and Spain, as well as Germany where profits tripled. We also saw very satisfactory sales performances within emerging markets in Central/Eastern Europe.
In our ‘Rest of World’ region, operating income increased by 20% and sales by 22%. Australia increased operating profit by 34% with sales up by 19%. Professional/executive recruitment sales in Australia increased by 23% while traditional staffing increased by 14%. Elsewhere, Latin America, Canada and Japan performed well while our Indian operations grew by more than 60% and more than doubled operating income.
Demand for permanent placement grew during the quarter resulting in a 32% organic increase in placement fees. Permanent placement now represents 2.9% of Group sales compared to 2.3% in Q1 2005.
Gross profit was €316.8 million compared to €268.1 million in Q1 2005. The increased gross margin earned from the supply of temporary staffing and an increase in permanent placement fees led to an improvement in gross margin to 18.4% compared to 17.5% in Q1 2005.
We continue to strive for greater operational efficiencies. As a result, our conversion ratio (operating income divided by gross profit) increased from 14.3% to 16.3%. As a percentage of sales, costs increased slightly to 15.4% compared to 15.0% in Q1 2005 reflecting increases in personnel costs driven by sales growth and investment in new organic business development.
Operating income was €51.7 million, an increase of 29%. The operating margin (operating income as a percentage of sales) was 3.0% an improvement of 50 basis points over Q1 2005.
Cash flow from operating activities increased to €90 million from €35 million in Q1 2005 mainly due to higher operating income, lower working capital requirements and lower tax payments.
Business Development
During Q1 2006, Vedior made two acquisitions and launched a number of new divisions as part of our active programme of organic expansion. In February, we acquired Talisman Software, a provider of technology personnel globally from a network of offices in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. During the same month, we also acquired Special Agent, a recruiter of educational support personnel, complementing our established teacher supply business.
In April, we acquired a further 52% interest in The Blomfield Group bringing our total holding in the company to 70%. Blomfield is a leading recruitment services provider in the UK and Ireland specialising in the financial sector and has a particularly strong presence in London’s financial recruitment market primarily under the Joslin Rowe brand.
Vedior actively seeks suitable acquisition opportunities in line with its objective to further diversify its business mix and increase the proportion of sales and profit derived from professional and executive recruitment.
As part of our organic development programme, we launched Sapphire Governmental Technologies in the US providing IT consultants to government system integrators as well as local, state and federal agencies. Elsewhere, we opened a new engineering/technical division in Australia, biotechnology staffing services in Singapore and teleservices recruitment in Mexico.
Management Outlook
Improving labour market conditions and increasing demand for personnel is clearly evident in the improvement in our margins during the first quarter of 2006. Economic forecasts in the majority of our markets continue to improve. Whilst making progress with our ongoing investment programme, we expect these trends to positively impact our performance for the remainder of the year.
For further information on these results, please join today’s conference call at 9.00am (CET). Details can be found on our website at www.vedior.com
| Zach Miles, Chief Executive |  | Tel: +31 (0)20 573 5609 |
| Frits Vervoort, CFO |  | |
| Jelle Miedema, Company Secretary |  | |
Investor Information at:
www.vedior.com/investor-relations/investor-relations.asp
Company Profile
Vedior is one of the world’s largest recruitment companies and is a full-service recruitment provider with a diversified portfolio of brands targeting a broad range of industry sectors.
From its global network of offices spanning Europe, North America, Australasia, Asia, South America and Africa, Vedior offers temporary and permanent recruitment as well as a number of complementary employment-related services such as outplacement, HR outsourcing, payrolling and training.
Vedior has a leading market position in the provision of professional/executive recruitment in sectors such as information technology, healthcare, accounting, engineering and education. We also have a significant global network providing administrative/secretarial and light industrial recruitment.
Financial Agenda
| 28 April 2006 |  | Annual General Meeting |
| 9 May 2006 |  | Dividend made payable |
| 27 July 2006 |  | Publication of second quarter results |
| 26 October 2006 |  | Publication of third quarter results |
Conference calls to discuss results are scheduled for 9am (CET) on the day of publication.
Safe Harbour
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