Wise Group (WISE:SS), the Swedish staffing firm, reported revenue for the second quarter ending 30 June 2017 of SEK 210.3 million (€22.1 million), an increase of 10% compared with the same quarter last year.  

The group reported net profit for the period amounted to SEK 9.5 million (€0.9 million), compared with SEK 11.6 million (€1.2 million) in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Wise Group announced in June that it had acquired Bright Relation AB, a company that develops and markets customer relations solutions and employee surveys. The group stated that a revenue contribution of SEK 3.3 million (€0.3 million) was attributable to Bright Relation AB.

The group also announced earlier this month that Roland Gustavsson, President and CEO has chosen to resign at his own request and will finish his employment in February 2018.

“Growth continued during the second quarter as demand for our services was good,” Gustavsson said. “During the quarter we acquired Bright Relation. This acquisition strengthens our Digital HR services segment and Bright's licensed business model contributes revenue that is less cyclically sensitive. With the acquisition, we create the market's strongest player in terms of the relationship between committed employees and loyal customers. In the coming quarter, the deal will have a positive impact on our operating profit.”

“I am not pleased that we failed in creating profitability in our Danish operations and therefore we are very closely monitoring the activities, both as a whole and the individual companies,” Gustavsson said. “Our Finnish operations achieved a positive result during the quarter, but not really at the levels we have set as our office is still under construction and two of our companies have been in the Finnish market for only one year.”

Revenue by business segment was broken down during Q2 2017 as follows:

Geographically, revenue during the second quarter was broken down as follows:

“We follow our strategy of profitable organic growth with complementary acquisitions. I look forward to the coming quarters, including the integration of Bright Relation, which complements our other activities. I estimate that Wise Group has very good opportunities to continue to grow in the second half of 2017,” Gustavsson said.

In trading today Wise Group traded at SEK 59.25 (€6.23), down 2.07% on the day and 20.67% above the 52 week low of SEK 49.10 (€5.16) set on 12 September 2016. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of SEK 450.84 million (€47.4 million).