Sweden-based healthcare and education staffing firm NGS Group AB (NGS: SS) reported revenue on Friday for the fourth quarter ended 31 December declined by 16.9% from the year-ago quarter.

Revenue by Geography

“The fourth quarter of the year represents continued weak development with sales and profit loss compared to the previous year,” CEO Ingrid Nordlund said.

“Operations in physician staffing developed well in 2019, but the market slowed down during the last month of the year,” Nordlund said. “As in Q3, nursing staff has had a loss of sales, but with unchanged margins. During December, a number of regions, including the Stockholm region, introduced rental stops on our services, which left a significant impact on sales. The hiring stops and layoffs that are ongoing are frequently discussed in the media and the situation ahead is difficult to assess. However, given the large healthcare needs that exist and will exist, we see that there is an underlying long-term demand for our services.”

“The quarter as a whole is characterised by the purchasing stops introduced by several of our largest customers in the field of healthcare staffing. At present it is difficult to estimate how long this will last and we are therefore working intensively to broaden our market both geographically and in new customer segments,” Nordlund said.

The group also reported revenue for the full year amounted to SEK 549 million, a decrease of 12.2% when compared to the previous year.

In trading Friday NGS Group shares closed at SEK 17.40 (€1.65), down 15.1% on the day. Based on its current share price, the company has a market value of SEK 157.0 million (€14.89 million).