Pagegroup Plc (MPGPF) Q2 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Thank you and good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Page Group 2025 second quarter trading update. I'm Kelvin Stagg, Chief Financial Officer, and on the call with me is Nick Kirk, Chief Executive Officer. Although I will not read it through, I'd just like to make reference to the legal formalities that are covered in the cautionary statement in the appendix to this presentation, and which will also be available on our website following the call. The group delivered gross profit of £194.8 million in the quarter, a decline of 10.5% in constant currencies. For the first half, we delivered gross profit of £389.3 million, a decline of 9.7% in constant currencies. We saw a slight deterioration in activity levels and trading in continental Europe, particularly in our two largest markets, France and Germany. However, we saw some improvement in activity, trading and customer confidence in Asia and the US. We reduced AFIANA headcounts by 133 or 2.5% during Q2, mainly in Europe and the UK. Overall, the group ended the quarter with 5,163 fee earners and a total headcount of 7,034. Productivity? measured as gross profit per fee earner remained high, but declined 3% on Q2 2024. This reflected the reduction in gross profit, partially offset by the decrease in fee earner headcount. We had net cash at the end of June of around £10 million. This compares to £54 million at the end of Q1, having purchased £7 million worth of shares for the Employee Benefit Trust in the quarter, as well as having paid out the 2024 final dividend of £37 million in June. I will now give a brief financial review. We reduced Afriana headcount by 133 or 2.5% during Q2, mainly in Europe and the UK, and on operations headcount decreased by 61 in Q2 or 3.2%, including the end of some double running as we fi...