Robust international growth helps Robert Walters

6th Jul 2011 10:09

White collar recruitment group Robert Walters said it recorded solid growth across all the regions in the second quarter, with solid performance seen in France, the Asia-Pacific region and the newly established business in Germany."The group performed well across all regions during the second quarter and as a result net fee income for the half year was up 23% year on year. This has been largely driven by our international businesses, which now represent 75% of the group's net fee income," chief executive officer Robert Walters said in a statement. Robert Walters said it is looking to expand in markets offering the best growth opportunities and plans to open offices in Indonesia, Taiwan and Germany in the second-half of the year. "A good update from Robert Walters, with top line growth in the first half ahead of our expectations and suggestions that European growth looks better than expected by some margin," Panmure Gordon analyst Paul Jones said in a note. "We expect first half numbers to show good y-o-y [year-on-year] progress, and believe H2 [second half] should show further progress, albeit that UK operations remain under pressure from macro factors,"Shares of the company rose 2.7% to 309p in morning trade in London. AR