Tue, 14 Oct 2014In its third quarter trading update recruitment firm Michael Page International has warned that it is expecting its full-year operating profit to be ‘modestly’ lower than market expectations. 

Its results stated that in EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa], “confidence levels are increasingly fragile”, the growth of the firm’s Asian business had slowed and foreign exchange movements continue to affect its reported results.

In the results, a statement from Steve Ingham, chief executive of Michael Page International, said: "These factors, allied to our strong headcount investment, lead us to now expect operating profit modestly lower than consensus market expectations, but still showing year-on-year growth of over 20% in constant currencies."

Currency headwinds hit the firm’s reported figures. While the company saw an 11.6% increase in gross profits on a constant currency basis, the figure was 4.7% on a reported basis. Its results said that ongoing currency headwinds lowered the recruitment firm’s reported figure by nearly 7% (equivalent to £9m gross profit and £1.6m of operating profit), compared to last year.