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View All NewsSweden – Poolia fourth quarter revenue and profits slide
Swedish staffing firm Poolia (POOLB: SS), which merged with Uniflex in 2018, reported revenue for the fourth quarter ending 31 December 2019 of SEK 393.1 million (€37.1 million), down 17.4% compared to the previous year.
Due to the merger between Poolia and Uniflex, which was completed on 31 October 2018, the fourth quarter results refer to the results of both companies. The group elected to recalculate its comparative figures, whereby the merger has been reported as if it had taken place on 1 January 2017. As a result, comparative figures for 2017 include Uniflex's income, expenses, assets and liabilities. Results also exclude Uniflex Germany which was sold in January 2018.
Fourth quarter revenue is as follows.
| (SEK millions) | Q4 2019 | Q4 2018 | Change | Q4 2019 (€ millions) |
| Revenue | 393.1 | 476.2 | -17.4% | 37.1 |
| Operating Profit | 4.2 | 6.3 | -33.3% | 0.3 |
| Profit After Tax | 2.6 | 6.0 | -56.6% | 0.2 |
Revenue by geography
| (SEK millions) | Q4 2019 | Q4 2018 | Change | Q4 2019 (€ millions) |
| Poolia Sweden | 109.2 | 130.8 | -16.5% | 10.3 |
| Poolia Germany | 39.0 | 40.8 | -4.4% | 3.6 |
| Poolia Finland | 11.4 | 12.1 | -5.7% | 1.0 |
| Uniflex Sweden | 200.4 | 260.6 | -23.1% | 18.9 |
| Uniflex Norway | 25.1 | 25.0 | 0.4% | 2.3 |
| Uniflex Finland | 8.0 | 6.9 | 15.9% | 0.7 |
During the past year, demand for staffing services generally decreased, which has also negatively affected Poolia.
Poolia Finland saw demand for staffing services decreased slightly at the end of 2019, while the recruitment business remained stable.
The group said that in Uniflex Sweden the decrease in sales was mainly due to a decrease in demand from the construction and automotive industries.
Meanwhile, Uniflex Finland said it succeeded in a challenging market.
The company also reported revenue for the full year 2019 of SEK 1.67 billion (€166.3 million), down from SEK 1.94 billion.
Jan Bengtsson, CEO and President of the group, said, “2019 was an exciting year when we fully saw the effects of the merger of Poolia and Uniflex. Our expectation was that the merger would lead to a competitive Poolia with a wide staffing offering in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germany.”
“The decline has happened in Poolia Sweden, Uniflex Sweden and in Poolia Germany, where the changed regulations that came into force two years ago then had a great negative impact on the industry. But we also see light flashes where our operations in both Finland and Norway showed good growth during the year.”
As of last trade Poolia traded at SEK 6.68 (€0.63), up 2.77% on the day and 16.50% below its 52-week high of SEK 8.00 (€0.76), set on 20 February 2019. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of SEK 232.52 million (€21.9 million).