Staffline Share Discussion Threads

[davebowler] 19/3/2024 08:28

Liberum-
[e-mail] Alex O’Hanlon [phone] [e-mail] FD EPS fell by 45% from 5.7p to 3.1p, but was in line with our expectations; £8.9m non-cash goodwill impairment at PeoplePlus. The underlying cash performance was strong with net cash of £3.8m at FY 23 on an IAS 17 spot basis vs our estimate of £3.8m, and there is a prospect of more buybacks. We maintain our FD EPS estimates, noting a strong start to the year, and no assumption of market recovery. We make 5 points: 1) The UK job market remains subdued. 2) Tightening of legislation on ‘umbrella companies’ would act as a tailwind for Staffline. 3) At Recruitment GB, EBIT increased 4% due to a 5% increase in hours in Q4, despite the tough macro and weaker perm fees. 4) Recruitment Ireland’s profitability is being restrained as expected by investment and tough macro in Northern Ireland, but there are some encouraging wins as Stormont reconvenes and the Republic is expected to grow in 2024. 5) At PeoplePlus, we expect a reduction in profits in FY 24 but a strong pipe-line points to recovery thereafter. We maintain our BUY recommendation and TP of 52p; a CY 24 P/E of 8.9x is attractive given the growth potential. FD EPS fell by 45% from 5.7p to 3.1p, but was in line with our expectations; £8.9m non-cash goodwill impairment at PeoplePlus Revenue increased 1.1% yoy to £938m, in line with our expectations, due to market share gains, predominantly in recruitment GB. H2 23 revenues increased 3.7% yoy but EBIT fell 1.2%. A full contribution from the BMW contract helped to offset reduced food and distribution sector volumes. Gross profit fell by 1.5% to £80.8m due to both the softening in permanent recruitment, as well as the reduction in higher margin employability training activity vs FY 22. Despite careful control of costs, the profit conversion rate fell from 14.6% in FY 22 to 12.7% in FY 23, and as a result there was a (by comparison with the sector) modest 14% decrease in EBIT to £10.3m (Liberum: £10.1m) in FY 23.

[gripfit] 19/3/2024 08:22

Get this to 50p and it’s goodbye from me.

[gripfit] 19/3/2024 08:21

That would be disgusting behaviour ..

[tia01] 19/3/2024 08:20

Be careful what you wish for.
A few companies on aim that went private recently left shareholders wiped out!

[gripfit] 19/3/2024 08:11

Take it private … put us out of our misery … or keep propping the share price up with share purchases …

[tia01] 19/3/2024 08:09

The only hope is the share price is low it ends up otherwise they may as well shut the doors.
1 billion and 10m profit!
I guess bonuses are in the up for the board

[tia01] 19/3/2024 08:07

Cash
Dress it up how you wish the results are the usual 💩

[casholaa] 19/3/2024 07:54

"PeoplePlus undertook a major restructuring exercise, exiting the in-person skills market and focusing on digital training. Accordingly, a charge relating to trading losses and exit costs of £3.1m has been disclosed as 'Discontinued' in these results. The low levels of unemployment associated with a reduction in demand for in-person skills training, as well as political uncertainty, has led to the reappraisal of the carrying value of goodwill, generating an impairment of £8.9m, which has no cash impact."

They have self de-valued the goodwill by £8.9m???

[tia01] 19/3/2024 07:52

Revenue up profits down sound absolutely!!!!

[gripfit] 19/3/2024 07:38

Some waffle in them reports …auditors fees up ..

[edukelis] 19/3/2024 07:34

Management are encouraged by the uplift in temp working hours which are c.5% higher for the first 10 weeks of 2024 compared to prior year.
Also buying back shares expected so temporary price boosts, happy days for short term sellers.

[qsmeily456] 18/3/2024 19:22

Tears u 🐘🐓 I c your a fan 🤣🤣🤣

[triskelion] 18/3/2024 14:58

Private Member's Bill only.

[gripfit] 18/3/2024 13:39

5… take a drop in wages ..

[casholaa] 18/3/2024 12:52

Let's come up with a list of questions:


1. Has there been any talk in the last 2 years of taking the company private?
2. Has there been any talk in the last 2 years of takeover/reverse takeover or merger with HRNet?
3. Why isn't the company making a demonstrable attempt to increase margins?
4. Do you think that shareholders outside of managment, would consider management to be correctly paid based upon performance?

[qsmeily456] 18/3/2024 12:29

10% premium to the prevailing share price previous 2 month period.

Give the CEO and FD a hard time on the call at 9am tomorrow 👍🫨

[casholaa] 18/3/2024 11:40

I agree with Q. Imvho chances are 95% will be taken private 5% waiting for HRNet to make an offer/merge. Might even be they try for HRNet instead.not seen HRNet liquidating their position.

[edukelis] 18/3/2024 10:48

50p minimum!

[gripfit] 18/3/2024 10:21

How much will they take it private for though ??

[edukelis] 18/3/2024 10:00

Good points smelly something doesn’t add up here.
Instead of reducing heads they employ more.
Instead of repaying debt they borrow more for employee bonus fund plus planning to issue over 20m shares in the next 3 years in few directors bonuses, for poor performance…

[qsmeily456] 18/3/2024 09:23

This being prepared to be taken private cheaply

Margins virtually zero....Why

No regular rns updates on new contracts or trading Why

HS continually buying cheap to acquire majority share for bid voting

They promised to increase share value....50p to 24p is reality.

They promised to increase margins....2% to under 1% now if that.

I could go on but you get the gist...

Suggest you lot grill the CEO and FD on the "meet the company" session at 9am tomorrow morning.

Why would anyone invest

[casholaa] 11/3/2024 16:18

Rather odd unless the staff are for Ireland?

[edukelis] 11/3/2024 16:10

We're delighted to have welcomed more than 20 colleagues into the business over the past four weeks, welcome to the UK's largest recruiter!

When all other big agencies reducing head count staffline going the other way, can it be a good sign towards recovery hmm

[gripfit] 11/3/2024 15:46

I think the ALLIANCE family will agree with u Smelly .. last purchase by them was at 40p I think 😩😩