FINANCIALS: Gattaca reveals overall decline in group profits

Declining employee headcount: Shutterstock

Gattaca has attributed a 4% annual decline in group net fee income to deteriorating client confidence caused by Brexit negotiations, IR35 tax changes and this year’s UK general election.

In a pre-close trading update for the 12 months ended 31 July 2017, released this morning, the specialist engineering and technology recruiter revealed overall NFI declined in the year by 4%, with Q1 to Q3 NFI down between 4% and 5%, though the rate of decline improved with Q4 2.4% lower than the previous year. H2 and Q4 benefited from an improvement for the group’s international businesses, particularly its US operation.

Across the group’s disciplines, engineering NFI fell 3% year-on-year, with double digit percentage growth for the group’s aerospace and engineering technology business offset by challenging conditions for its infrastructure, maritime, energy, automotive and professional staffing business Barclay Meade.

The group’s technology business also witnessed a decline of in NFI of 6% year-on-year, with NFI for its telco business down 10% on the previous year.

Net debt as of 31 July 2017 was £41m, up from £28m on 31 January 2017 and £25m on 31 July 2016.

Commenting on the group update Gattaca CEO Brian Wilkinson said: “Gattaca's exposure to skill-short STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) markets should mitigate to an extent the effects of the business uncertainty that we are seeing in the UK economy relative to less specialist players. 

“As government-sponsored infrastructure and defence programmes roll out we expect to see a positive impact on our business which should offset any weakness in the overall economy. This strong position in engineering and technology markets, particularly where they converge, allied to our rapidly growing international business puts us in a robust position for the future.”

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