Adecco simplifies its network in France, 500 jobs lost
Adecco, the global staffing services, announced Thursday a simplification of its network in France which will result in the removal of over 500 full-time positions.
The measure, which will bring together networks Adecco and Adia, loads and require investment of 45 million euros to be included mainly in the second half of 2012, the company said in a statement ;.
Adecco, which France represents nearly 30% of total turnover, recorded in the Hexagon stable revenues of 1.46 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2011, for a re RESULT operations (EBITA) of 62 million, up 8%. The margin improved 40 basis points to 4.3%.
Over the year, revenues and operating income in France rose 10% to 6.07 billion respectively, and 202 million euros.
In January, revenues fell 9% in France, told Reuters the group managing director, Patrick De Maeseneire. They grew at the same time by 2% in the U.S., said the CFO Dominik de Daniel.
At group level, revenues declined 1% in January, both on an organic basis as adjusted for working days.
"We see a slowdown, especially in Western Europe, as we have already observed in Italy and the Iberian peninsula in the third quarter. Only Germany and some Nordic countries are an exception, "said the CEO told Reuters
. STRONG DIVIDEND RISE
The restructuring comes amid Adecco confirmed its medium-term objective after numbers rather high expectations in the fourth ; me
. quarter 2011 net income attributable to shareholders fell to 133 million euros, against 141 million a year earlier and a consensus at 123 million. Turnover increased by 3% to 5.19 billion euros, as expected.
Of all of fiscal 2011, net income rose to 519 million, better than the forecasted 509 million, and revenue has grown from 10% to ; 20.54 billion, as anticipated.
"With the strong performance in 2011, continued price discipline and strict cost control, we are on track to meet our medium-term EBITA margin of over 5.5 %, "said Patrick De Maeseneire in a statement.
Adecco recorded in 2011 an EBITA margin up 10 basis points to 4%. The EBITA, expected 807 million over the year by analysts, has signed an organic growth of 14% to 814 million.
The Board of Directors will propose to the General Meeting a dividend increase to CHF 1.80 per share for the past year, 1.10 franc against the previous year. Markets expected 1.01 franc.
In exchange, the action of Adecco jumped 6.3% to 48.20 Swiss francs at 10:00 am (0900 GMT), signing by far the largest increase in the index of blue chips in Switzerland (0, 09%) and the largest increase in the European index of services (0.08%).
Analysts welcomed especially strong dividend increase, the proportion will grow at 40-50% of net income adjusted against 25-30% previously.
"But overall, the results are especially strong with a strong cash flow," said Michael Foeth, the bank Vontobel.
Same story at Kepler Capital Markets, where the analyst Matthijs Van Leijenhorst emphasizes that the competitor Randstad has registered a growth of 3% on a comparable basis, against 14% for the Swiss group.