Japanese staffing giant Persol (2181: JP), reported revenue today for the second quarter ended 30 September 2020 of JPY 227.5 billion (USD 2.16 billion), a decrease of 6.6% compared to the same period last year.

In Q2, sales of Career SBU and APAC SBU decreased significantly due to the termination of one of its businesses last year and the impact of Covid-19, which resulted in decreased sales and profits.

On March 2020 Persol announced that it is shifting its business to a Strategic Business Unit structure. The structure includes five SBUs -namely, Staffing, Career, Professional Outsourcing, Solution, and Asia Pacific.

Net income was a turnaround from last year’s net loss which was primarily due to a goodwill impairment loss.

Q2 Revenue by segment

Within Staffing, revenue increased because the clerical and administrative area showed a firm business trend and BPO (business process outsourcing) grew significantly.

In Q2, the Career SBU saw both the placement business and advertising business affected by Covid-19, resulting in decreased sales and profits.

In Professional Outsourcing, revenue was favourable because there was strong demand in the IT area, but profits declined due to the occurrence of non-operating engineers.

In the Solution SBU, revenue was impacted as a result of the application of the principle method for revenue recognition of job search application business from this fiscal year.

In Asia Pacific, revenue for both PersolKelly and Programmed decreased in Q2 due to a large impact of Covid-19.

In the Others segment, revenue increased because sales of the internal transaction business for employment of persons with disabilities increased but this was offset to some degree by a decrease in demand for the training business affected by Covid-19.

The group also reported revenue for the six months ended 30 September 2020 of JPY 465.7 billion (USD 4.4 billion), a decrease of 2.8% when compared to the previous year

Persol said, since the first quarter which was greatly affected by Covid-19, its business has been on a gradual recovery trend, and the main businesses, Staffing SBU and Career SBU, have been showing a stronger performance than the previous forecast. Accordingly, the company’s full-year earnings forecast was revised upward. The company is now forecasting revenue of JPY 940 billion (USD 8.92 billion) for the full year 2020.

Shares in Persol closed at JPY 1,881.00 (USD 17.86), up 11.96% on the day and 16.40% below its 52-week high of 2,250.00 (USD 21.37), set on 13 November 2019. The company has a market cap of JPY 381.80 billion (USD 3.62 billion).