FDM Group's growth on track despite challenging conditions
By Duncan Ferris
Date: Tuesday 23 Jul 2019
(Sharecast News) - FDM Group on Tuesday reported growth in line with expectations as interim revenues jumped despite challenging conditions in the UK and North America.
The graduate training and recruitment firm reported revenue of £134.4m for the six months ended 30 June, up 14% compared to the same period last year. Revenue from its employees, affectionately referred to as mounties, increased by 16% to £132.6m to offset a continued decline in non-core revenue from contractors.
FDM said a strategic shift in focus towards its own employees enabled the company to improve gross margin from 43% to 49%. Meanwhile, pre-tax profit increased by 9% to £24.9m and FDM hiked its interim dividend by 10% to 16p per share.
However, the second quarter saw a reduction in demand from the UK as government clients continue to struggle with a lack of clarity in the Brexit process and the Conservative leadership contest. North America also saw reduced demand in financial services.
Even so, both regions enjoyed improvements to operating profit and had more mounties in place at the end of the half than at the same point 12 months earlier, with a 9% increase in the UK and a 17% rise in North America.
Chief executive Rod Flavell said: "We continue to be successful in diversifying our activities and client base across an increasing range of geographies, technologies and industry sectors. We have a strong financial position and are well placed to evolve our investment plans for each of the geographic markets in which we operate in line with local market conditions. We remain confident in both the outturn for the full year and continued progress thereafter."
At 0848 BST, the shares were down 1.56% at 882.00p.
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