Professional recruiter PageGroup’s Asian and North American regions were strong in Q1 2013, but company-wide gross profit (GP) was in decline.

Q1 GP was £126.8m, down 2.8% on the previous quarter (adjusted for currency fluctuation), and 6.7% on the same period in 2012.

GP was up year-on-year by 16% in North America and 14% in Asia, the strongest regions. The UK, which represents just under a quarter of group GP, fell slightly from £30.6m to £30.2m.

The French and German businesses saw declines of 17% and 27% respectively. Both are areas where the group is particularly dependent on permanent recruitment; company-wide, GP derived from permanent recruitment dropped at more than twice the rate of the temporary division.

Total headcount dropped by 57 to 5,042 in the year 2012 at the company, driven by a reduction in support roles (64), with a small rise in fee earners seen.

Last month, recruiter.co.uk reported that the company was confident in the potential to profit from diversification of its small, scalable specialist teams. However, a research note from Espírito Santo Investment Bank, states: “We continue to prefer SThree where we believe the scope for growth from diversification is greater.” 

Neil Shah, global head of research at investment intelligence firm Edison Investment Research, comments: “With France and Germany remaining the graveyard for financial services for some time ahead, investors will find better value among recruiters beyond Michael Page [ie. PageGroup].”