21 July 2016

Empresaria Group plc ("Empresaria")

Trading Update and Notice of Results

Empresaria (AIM: EMR), the international specialist staffing group, today announces a trading update for the financial year ending 31 December 2016, ahead of announcing its interim results on Thursday 18 August 2016.

Empresaria has continued to perform well, highlighting the benefits of a multi-branded group that is diversified and balanced by geography and sector, and can confirm that it remains on course to meet market expectations for the full year.  

Net fee income for the first six months of the year is approximately 13% ahead of prior year and the group has seen particularly strong trading in our Continental Europe, Asia Pacific and Americas regions, especially in Germany, Japan, India, Chile and China.  The investment in USA based Pharmaceutical Strategies is performing in line with our expectations.

In the UK there was a slowdown during May and June, as business confidence dropped in the run up to the EU referendum, although the impact of this was mitigated by stronger trading across the rest of the group.  Following the referendum, it has stabilised and sales pipelines are holding up well. Being a globally diversified business, we are well positioned to manage the effects of a slowdown in any particular sector or geography.  Whilst we are monitoring the short-term outlook for the UK, we see strong growth opportunities across the group and will benefit from the effect of current exchange rates as our overseas earnings are translated into Sterling.

Joost Kreulen, Chief Executive of Empresaria, said:

"We have delivered another strong performance in the first half year, showing the benefits of our strategy of building a multi-branded group that is diversified and balanced by geography and sector.  

Whilst there is general uncertainty in the UK markets, this accounts for less than a third of our business and we see strong growth opportunities across our group.  This position was strengthened further by the recent investment in Rishworth Aviation, the second largest international recruitment company in the Aviation sector whose revenues are geographically diversified, which we expect to be earnings enhancing this year.  We are excited about the potential for this business within Empresaria.

We have a clear strategy to develop leading specialist brands with sector expertise and we will continue to look for further investment opportunities.  With our diversified business and mix of service lines, we are confident in our ability to deliver profitable growth."

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Notes for editors:

§ Empresaria Group plc is an international specialist staffing group with 20 brands operating in 19 countries across the globe including UK, Germany, Japan, India, UAE, Indonesia, Chile, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Finland, USA, New Zealand and the Philippines.

§ Empresaria offers Temporary/Contract and Permanent staffing solutions as well as Offshore Recruitment Services in seven key sectors including Technical & Industrial, Aviation services, IT & Design, Professional services, Healthcare and Retail.

§ Empresaria applies a multi brand, management equity philosophy and business model, with group company management teams holding significant equity in their own business.

§ Empresaria is listed on AIM under ticker EMR. For more information:empresaria.com