Empresaria Group published a trading update today for the six months ended 30 June 2022 reporting an increase in net fee income of 15% in constant currency.

Net fee income totalled £32.6 million.

The group delivered strong year-on-year growth in Offshore Services which has continued to go from strength to strength and now employs over 2,700 people. Offshore Services net fee income was up 94% year-on-year.

Permanent placement net fee income was up 23% year-on-year.

“As expected, net fee income from Healthcare reduced after a strong 2021 where we benefitted from significant demand from Covid-19 vaccination programmes,” the group stated. “We are experiencing more challenging conditions in some of our markets, such as in our German temporary business, where supply chain issues have impacted our clients and increased sickness rates have impacted margins.”

The group has been investing in growing its sales and recruiting teams where it sees significant opportunities for growth and headcount has increased by 5% from the end of 2021 (excluding Offshore Services which has grown headcount by 36%).

Hiring in certain markets has proven to be challenging due to the lack of availability of talent and increased salary expectations for those willing to move, however Empresaria has seen a recent uptick in hiring particularly in APAC. In addition, it made good progress in supplementing its recruitment teams with its offshore resources.

Rhona Driggs, CEO of Empresaria, said, "We are pleased to report solid growth in net fee income in the first half of 2022.  We are seeing positive outcomes from our investments in our team, technology and broadening our service offerings, with early successes from our RPO offering in APAC particularly pleasing.”

“The competition for talent intensified in the first half of 2022,” Driggs said. “High demand from clients combined with talent shortages and rising inflation means that the recruitment landscape has been incredibly competitive. This provides both opportunities and challenges with the increased volume of available roles offset by the lack of candidates and the increased levels of counter or competing offers.”

“Global macroeconomic uncertainties are increasing and the impact of growing inflation in many of our markets is yet to be fully realised,” Driggs added. “We have yet to see any significant adverse impact, although we have seen some localised issues such as supply chain challenges for our clients in Germany.”

“We continue to invest in our operations, growing headcount where we see strong opportunities for growth, along with our ongoing investment in technology to improve our speed to deliver and provide greater productivity. We are also investing in expanding our capacity to grow headcount in Offshore Services,” Driggs continued.

“Given our solid start to 2022, we expect profits for the full year to be in line with market expectations,” Driggs said.

Shares in Empresaria Group last traded at £60.00, down 1.64% on the day and 0.00% above its 52-week low of £60.00, set on 14 July 2022. The company has a market cap of £30.29 million.