Michael Page FY15 Profit Up, Raises Dividend; Sees Profitable Growth In FY16

(RTTNews) - Recruitment firm Michael Page International plc (MPI.L, MPGPF) reported Thursday that its fiscal 2015 profit before tax increased 12.9 percent to 90.7 million pounds from last year's 80.4 million pounds. Earnings per share were 21.1 pence, 10.5 percent higher than 19.1 pence a year ago. The prior year rtesults included exceptional items.

Revenue for the year increased 1.7 percent to 1.065 billion pounds fropm prior year's 1.047 billion pounds. On a constant exchange rate basis, revenues grew 7.1 percent.

Further, the company said a final dividend of 7.9 pence per ordinary share is proposed, higher than last year's 7.58 pence. This would imply an increase in the total dividend for the year of 4.5 percent over 2014 to 11.5 pence per ordinary share. Commenting on the outlook, Steve Ingham, Chief Executive Officer of PageGroup, said, "Trading so far in Q1 has continued in a similar pattern to that seen in Q4, with the exception of Greater China where we have seen trading conditions deteriorate further, particularly with our multinational clients and in Hong Kong. …. we will continue to focus on driving profitable growth in 2016, as we did throughout 2015, whilst remaining able to respond quickly to any changes in market conditions."