PageGroup FY16 Profit Rises, Lifts Dividend; Sees Profitable Growth In FY17

(RTTNews) - PageGroup plc (MPGPF.PK, MPI.L), a specialist professional recruitment company, reported Wednesday that its fiscal 2016 profit before tax increased 10.3 percent to 100 million pounds from 90.7 million pounds a year ago. Earnings per share were 23.1 pence, up 9.5 percent from 21.1 pence last year.

Revenue for the year climbed 12.3 percent to 1.196 billion pounds from 1.065 billion pounds last year. At constant exchange rates, revenues grew 3.6 percent.

Further, the company announced that a final dividend of 8.23 pence per share is proposed, compared to last year's 7.9 pence. This would imply an increase in the total dividend for the year of 4.2% over 2015 to 11.98p per ordinary share.

Looking ahead, Steve Ingham, Chief Executive Officer, said, "Despite the challenges in a number of our larger markets, such as the UK, Brazil and China, the unpredictable nature of the current cycle and our limited visibility, we will continue to focus on driving profitable growth, whilst remaining able to respond quickly to any changes in market conditions. We will update the market on our 2017 performance in 4 weeks' time on the 12th April."