Impellam warns on permanent recruitment post-referendum

Acquisitions made by the managed services business in the UK, Europe and Australia performed well, helping boost gross profits by 15 per cent to £30m. Technology recruitment specialist Lorien Resourcing grew its cash profits here by a third, while Australian recruiter Comensura took on 25 new managed service contracts. The specialist staffing business in the UK, Europe and Australia also increased its gross profits by 10 per cent to £73m. However, the conversion ratio - of gross into operating profit - for both these businesses declined. For specialist staffing this was due to lower permanent fees as well as continued investment in headcount.

Gross profit in the US managed services and specialist staffing businesses increased by 156 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively, at constant currencies. This was largely thanks to last year's acquisition of Bartech, which on a standalone basis grew gross profits 15 per cent, again at fixed exchange rates.

Prior to these results, analysts at Investec Securities forecast adjusted pre-tax profits of £59m and EPS of 101.2p for the 12 months to December 2016 (£46m and 88.4p in 2015).