Asia takes the shine off growth at staffing firm Robert Walters
A SLOWDOWN in hiring in Asia has weighed on recruitment firm Robert Walters’ third quarter results, the company said yesterday.
The white-collar recruiter posted an eight per cent rise in net fee income to £13.1m in the UK, only to be overshadowed by a five per cent fall on last year to £24.1m in Asia Pacific.
Robert Walters said the Asian business had grown quarter-on-quarter, despite an ongoing reluctance to hire among financial firms in the region.
The group’s offices in France and Germany are also performing well, with strong net fee income growth in the quarter.
But overall net fee income rose just one per cent on a year ago to £48.5m for the three months to the end of September.
“These are solid results, given a global economic backdrop that continues to be challenging,” said eponymous chief executive Robert Walters.
Headcount rose by over 100 to 2,273 during the quarter, as a result of new clients and expansion in the firm’s Resources Solutions outsourcing arm.