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View All NewsRecruit Holdings revenue rises 11% in fiscal Q2 on growth in staffing and HR technology segments
Japanese staffing firm Recruit Holdings reported revenue rose 10.8% its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, attributable mainly to continued growth of its staffing and HR technology segments.
The HR technology segment consists of jobs website Indeed and its related businesses. Second-quarter revenue in the segment rose 75.8% year over year to ¥52.7 billion (US$468.2 million), mainly due to a combination of new customer acquisition and expanding spend per account.
Indeed recently acquired Interviewed, an HR technology company that helps employers to identify and evaluate candidates.
| (¥millions) | Q2 2017 | Q2 2016 | % change | % change constant currency | Q2 2017 (US$millions) |
| Revenue | ¥538,698 | ¥486,170 | 10.8% | $4,783.6 | |
| Gross profit | ¥249,785 | ¥218,506 | 14.3% | $2,218.1 | |
| Gross margin | 46.4% | 44.9% | |||
| Profit for the period | ¥41,987 | ¥49,389 | -15.0% | $372.8 |
Recruit’s operations in Japan include staffing and publishing. In North America, its operations include Advantage Resourcing America Inc., Staffmark, The CSI Companies and Atterro. European operations include USG People and Australian operations include Chandler Macleod.
The company made a number of acquisitions and investments during the period. In June, Recruit announced the acquisition of German-based TrustYou, a guest feedback platform. The company also recently invested in Plenty Unlimited Inc., an agriculture technology company based in South San Francisco, Calif; WizRocket, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of a mobile marketing platform called CleverTap; Shocard, a company that provides a personal authentication platform using blockchain technology; and Mara Labs Inc., which operates and provides the logistics optimization platform Locus through its Indian subsidiary Mara Studios Pvt. Ltd.
The company adopted International Financial Reporting Standards in place of Japanese GAAP as of this fiscal year.
Revenue by segment
| (¥billions) | Q2 2017 | Q2 2016 | % change | Q2 2017 (US$billions) |
| HR Technology | ¥52.7 | ¥29.9 | 75.8% | $0.47 |
| Media & Solutions | ¥166.7 | ¥161.1 | 3.5% | $1.48 |
| Staffing | ¥324.6 | ¥299.9 | 8.2% | $2.88 |
Within the company’s staffing segment, quarterly revenue rose 8.2% to ¥324.6 billion, mainly because of the increased revenue from the operations in Japan. Staffing revenue from Recruit’s overseas operation rose 6.9% in the period due to the impact of foreign exchange rate movements; the company also noted a decrease in transactions with existing clients who limited spending because of the challenging business environment in some industries in the US.
Guidance
Recruit forecast revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2018 will be up 7.3% from the previous year to ¥2.08 trillion (US$18.48 billion). The forecast was unchanged from the company’s last earnings announcement.
Share price and market cap
Shares in Recruit closed up 0.02%% to ¥2,739, according to Google Finance. The company had a market cap of ¥4.65 trillion.