Robert Walters plc (RWA) Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Hello and welcome to the Robert Walters Q1 of 2025 Trading Update call. Please note this conference is being recorded and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star 0 and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, David Bauer, CFO, to begin today's conference. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our Q1 2025 trading update. I'm David Bauer, Chief Financial Officer, and joining me this morning is Toby Falston, Chief Executive. At the beginning, I'll make a few remarks around performance at the group level before Toby touches on trading across our regions, as well as the market backdrop. As ever, we'll then be happy to take any questions you may have. As usual, all net fee income percentage movements are in constant currency. So you'll have seen from this morning's statement, group net fee income was down by 16% year on year in the third quarter, as trading conditions overall remain challenging across our markets. We saw some pockets of growth in the UK and broadly stable activity levels in Asia Pacific. However, the weaker sentiment observed in Europe in late 2024 continued in the first quarter. Forward activity levels for the specialist recruitment business, namely job flow and interviews, followed the typical shape we see in Q1, with activity levels ticking up in March following a quieter January and February. For our specialist recruitment service line overall, job flow was in line with the first quarter last year. Returning now to consider headcount and productivity, we closed the quarter with...