Specialist professional recruiter Hydrogen Group has seen “strong” performances across the group, according to a trading update for its financial year ended 31 December 2010.

According to the update: “Performance across the group has been strong, with growth of net fee income (NFI) of over 60% to exceed £27m for the year ended 31 December 2010 (2009: £17m).

“In the UK, our contract business has delivered a particularly good performance, experiencing a significant increase in the number of contract placements. Our newly launched pharmaceuticals business has gone from strength to strength, with excellent success in the European markets.

“Internationally, our Australian and Singapore offices have both performed well. Having opened in Singapore in January of this year both offices took advantage of very active markets in the first half of 2010.

“The year end net debt position of £2m (2009; net cash £3.1m) was better than expectations given the working capital investment required to finance the growth in contractor numbers.”