CPL shares up as Brexit fails to hit earnings

Shares in CPL Resources closed over 1.5% higher as the recruitment firm said sales and profits continued to grow despite uncertainties caused by the UK’s Brexit vote.

Pre-tax profits rose 7% to €8.1m in the six months to the end of December, as revenues increased by 6% to €228.7m.

It plans to pay an interim dividend of 5.75c a share, an increase of 10% from a year earlier.

“We remain confident in the outlook for the business and expect to deliver continued profitable growth for the remainder of the financial year,” said CEO Anne Heraty.

Davy Stockbrokers said “the stand-out feature” in the latest six-month period was an upturn in the margin earned on temporary recruitment even as healthcare hiring in the UK was weighed down.

“Specifically, this relates to the longer lead times in placing nurses after the implementation of more onerous English language requirements.

“However, while the issues in UK healthcare look likely to continue into the second half, there was continued permanent growth in Ireland and central and eastern Europe. Encouragingly, the growth in Ireland was broad-based and not particularly reliant on any one sector,” the broker said.

Davy said it did not plan to make any major upgrade to CPL’s earnings for the full year. CPL said that in a competitive market it had posted “some” improvement in temporary recruitment.

Apart from currency transaction costs, political uncertainty “have had limited impact”, it said, adding it holds €35.2m in cash.