IT recruiter RDL has admitted that acquisition and reorganisation costs have pushed its results into the red.

However chairman and managing director Andy Richards said there were signs that business was picking up again in the IT recruitment sector.

"I am pleased to report that the trend has reversed in the second quarter with increased levels of new business created by fewer sales staff." Richards acknowledged that there is still uncertainty in the marketplace, but claimed "there are signs that we may have seen the worst of the downturn with December 2001 and January 2002, we believe, being the bottom of the cycle."

An interim statement for the six months ending 31 March revealed the group achieved a pre-tax loss of £40,000 on sales of £28.35m, an increase on sales of £21.23m the previous year.

RDL’s acquisition of SIG and subsequent reorganisation of the company created one-off costs of £676,000.

Underlying profit of £636,000 was still "significantly lower" than the same period last year, which chairman and MD Andy Richards blamed on "difficult market conditions".

The figures also revealed that RDL’s debt had increased from £4.17m plus a deferred consideration of £5m in September 2001 to £11.98m.

RDL’s acquisition of SIG added the IT recruitment consultancies First IT People, SEC, Computer Personnel and an IT consultancy business, SIG Consulting, to the organisation.

The cost saving programme involved closing the SIG head office, RDL London and Adelphi Belgium offices and transferring staff to other offices within the group.

An expenditure review has also achieved annual savings of £2.5m and the board expects the benefits of this to be felt in the second half of this financial year.

RDL is publisher of the IT recruitment board, Skillsite, which has been involved in a lengthy legal battle with rival site, Jobserve.