Outlook remains bright for buoyant Matchtech

Published on Wednesday 17 October 2007 01:00

TECHNICAL recruitment specialist Matchtech posted a 36 per cent rise in pre-tax profits on strong organic growth, as it anticipated another successful year.

The news prompted Seymour Pierce to stick with its "buy" rating on the shares.

Pre-tax profits for the company, which has a market capitalisation of 108 million, rose to 10.5m for the full year against 7.7m last time on turnover up by 29 per cent to 202.8m. Matchtech saw a 39 per cent rise in permanent recruitment fees and 23 per cent increase in contract fees.

Chairman George Materna said: "The outlook continues to be positive. Labour demand across all our sectors remains healthy and this looks set to continue for the foreseeable future."

He added that the shortage of good-quality candidates and contractors and Matchtech's ability to identify and secure the right people for its clients were key factors in the group's success.

The maiden final dividend came to 9.3p a share on a total dividend for the year of 13.7p.

The group, which joined AIM last year, said the results excluded the sales and profits from the US business sold in August and non-recurring costs of the IPO.