Dutch staffing firm DPA Group (DPA: NL) reported revenue for the first quarter ending 31 March 2017 of €31.1 million, a decrease of 6.3% compared with €33.2 million in Q1 2016.

Eric Winter, CEO of DPA, commented: "The uncertainty surrounding the DBA Act has resulted in a sharp drop in our sales from mediation of independent professionals, which means that we now have 70% fewer independent professionals than at the beginning of 2016. This leads to approximately 4.1 million euros less revenue in the first quarter of 2017 and a loss of 0.7 million euros."

As of 1 May 2016, the Law Review deregulation of labour relations (DBA) entered into force and replaced the Declaration of Independent Contractor Status (VAR), a standard contract required for all independent contractors in the Netherlands. At the beginning of 2016, DPA indicated that, due to the DBA Act, it aimed to reduce the proportion of independent professionals supplied to its clients. Following the introduction of the DBA Act on May 1, 2016, this policy was accelerated by DPA. In the first quarter of 2017, 11% of the hours worked by clients were completed by independent professionals via DPA, down from 16% in the same quarter of the previous year. This is expected to lead to a decline in revenue contribution from independent professionals, in line with DPA’s strategy aimed at deploying more of their own professionals.

The group indicated that the DBA Act is expected to have a negative effect on the company's revenue in the second quarter of 2017, after which this one-off effect will be minimized in the second half of 2017.

Finally, in the same statement the company announced, the acquisition of 61.1% of the shares of Your Professionals, completed on 24 March 2016. This company places professionals into permanent and temporary positions within the specialist fields of finance, IT, engineering, legal and real estate. Your Professionals was founded in 2007 and is located in Almere. “This scale-up is expected to contribute to DPA's earnings per share from the second quarter of 2017”, the company claimed.

In trading today, DPA Group traded at €1.70, 5.56% below its 52-week high of €1.80, set on 29 August 2016. Based on its current share price, the company has a value of €87.5 million.