SThree profits to beat forecasts

3rd Dec 2010 07:33

Recruiter SThree expects profits this year to come in slightly ahead of market forecasts with all areas of its business now improving.Group gross profit to November will be about £167m, down 2% year on year (2009: £171.1m).Permanent placement gross profit is up 15% year on year for the full year and by 53% year on year in over this tme last year. Temps gross profit is down 12% year on year for the full year, but up 4% year on year in the last three months. SThree closed the year with 4,359 contract runners, up 4.9% year on year (2009: 4,157) and a 6.5% increase on the prvious quarter's runners of 4,093. Average contractor gross profit per day rates have remained strong in the period. The current permanent deal pipeline reflects improvements across all markets. At 28 November, the number of permanent deals agreed in the period, with candidates due to start in the future, were up more than 40% year on year."Our performance remains consistent with improving markets across all of the geographies in which we operate. By the final quarter of the year, all of our markets were showing both year on year and sequential growth," SThree said.