Robert Walters grows outside of finance while banks recover
RECRUITMENT boss Robert Walters said yesterday he is confident that the banking sector will bounce back from the financial crisis, though the jobs openings will be in different areas of the industry.
Walters’ namesake firm yesterday said pre-tax profits fell by more than half to £7.7m last year, on revenues up 5.6 per cent at £567.8m, as the company diversifies away from the financial sector.
“Banking, it will come back, it’s not over yet. It will be in a different shape and form of course, but there’s no reason why it won’t return,” he told City A.M. “In 2000 when the internet bubble was pierced, taking banks down with it, quite educated people were saying banks would never come back. But between 2000 and 2007, the number of people working in banking doubled.”
Walters saw growth last year in engineering, procurement and marketing jobs, and now 85 per cent of net fee income is generated outside financial services, from 78 per cent in 2011.
The firm has opened two offices so far this year, in Ghent and Dubai, taking its total to 53 offices in 24 countries. While he is mulling an additional outlet in China, Walters said there were no other plans to expand geographically in 2013. Shares rose 3.3 per cent to close at 207p yesterday.