SThree plc (STEM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to SThree's FY '23 Q1 Trading Update. Thank you for joining us today, and I'm here with our CFO, Andy Beach, who will take us through the numbers in a moment. As usual, we will give a brief overview of our performance before taking any questions. We have delivered a robust performance to the start of the year with net fee growth of 4% year-on-year. This performance is in line with expectations and is supported by our disciplined approach to our well-established strategy focused on STEM and flexible talent. Throughout the quarter, the macroeconomic environment has remained uncertain with unusual characteristics, including some of the lowest unemployment rates coupled with high inflation and on top of that, heavy government investments across Europe and U.S., which is generating further splits demand. All of this is resulting in very effects across our markets, which is impacting new placements and being offset by strong contract extensions. The strength in contract extensions indicates that clients recognize that there are structural shortages and are very keen to hold on to these skills through their contactors. Our contractor order book underpins our near-term visibility and continues to be a source of strength for the business, with the contract now representing 81% of group net fees. We have continued to make progress against our clear strategy, which is centered on an analytical infect based approach of knowing where to play and playing where we can win. We continue to be guided by this prudent approach with our targeted investment in talent and our technology improvement program progressing as planned. These improvements are focused on enabling our consultants to become more productive and driving best factor standardization, simplification and automation across the organization to position the group to scale with sustainable margins in line with our 2024 ambitions. Just as a reminder, if you were unable to join us for a second investor briefing in January, which covered our technology improvement program in detail, you can view the recording on our investor website. As you will have seen, we've introduced a new regional reporting structure and this update, and we'll be using this reporting forward moving forward. We believe this new geographically focused structure more clearly sets out the group's performance with a focus on our key markets. And with that, I will now hand over to Andy, who will take us through the numbers. Andy, over to you.

Thanks, Timo, and good morning, everyone. We started the year with a robust first quarter with group net fees up 4% on a constant currency basis. Contract net fees were up 8%, an eighth consecutive quarter of growth, with that growth coming from all regions. In line with our strategy, Contract now represents 81% of group net fees. Permanent net fees saw a decline of 12%. This decline reflects market conditions, performance in the U.S. and Life Sciences as well as the accelerated strategic transition from permanent to contract in a couple of our markets. So let's take a look at what's driving our growth this quarter, starting with the regional perspective. DACH grew 8% year-on-year. Germany, our largest country in the region, saw growth of 7% driven by technology with higher demand for roles within Cyber Security and software development and engineering with demand for construction roles. In the Netherlands region, net fees were up 6%. The Netherlands itself, our largest country in the region, delivered an increase of 4% driven by technology with increased demand for project managers, ERP consultants and data-related roles and engineering due to demand for process engineers, electrical engineers and health and safety advisers. Rest of Europe net fees were up 4%. The U.K., our largest country in the region, delivered an increase of 6%, driven by technology with increased demand for software engineers and roles within digital transformation. In the U.S., we saw net fees declined by 6%. However, contract net fees, which account for 85% of total net fees in the region were up 4% in the quarter, driven by a strong engineering performance with increased demand for roles within project management, electrical and mechanical engineering. Our U.S. Perm business, which represents 15% of net fees declined by 40%, which resulted from a combination of our strategic shift towards contract in the U.S. from Q2 last year, together with softer trading conditions in line with market trends against strong prior year comparatives in Life Sciences. And finally, in the Middle East and Asia, net fees for the region were up 19%. Japan, which represents 39% of the region's net fees saw a growth of 7% driven by Life Sciences as demand increased for roles within pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The Middle East is managed from our office in the UAE, and it saw net fee growth of very strong 67%, driven by engineering. From a skills perspective, we retain a strong and unique position in providing STEM skills. Technology, our largest discipline, grew by 8% year-on-year. Now as a reminder, when we talk about technology, we're referring to placing people with skills and technology across multiple industries. Engineering grew by 19%, with strong growth in both Germany and the U.S., whilst Life Sciences declined 15%, primarily driven by softer market conditions in the U.S., together with strong prior year comparatives. Period-end headcount declined by 4% from the end of FY '22. Towards the end of last year, we announced the restructure of our Singapore, Hong Kong and Ireland businesses, which accounts for half of this decrease. On a like-for-like basis, excluding these countries, our period-end headcount declined by 2%. Average headcount for the quarter was up by 9% year-on-year. And in line with our strategy, while closely monitoring and taking the evolving market conditions into account, we're maintaining our disciplined and focused headcount investments towards contract in the markets and skill verticals that provide the best growth opportunities and where we can generate the strongest returns. As expected and previously guided, we have seen productivity levels normalize as new hires come on board, with Q1 productivity down 5% year-on-year. The contract order book is up 5% year-on-year, which together with the net fees already recognized in Q1 gives visibility of around 60% of the full year consensus net fees. And finally, we have a strong balance sheet with net cash of GBP 64 million at the end of the quarter. With that, I'll hand back to Timo.

Thank you, Andy. As you have heard, Q1 has seen robust net fee performance driven by our contract business, and our teams have continued to execute well, and we have continued to make progress against our clear strategy, which is centered on an analytical fact-based approach of knowing where to play and playing where we can win. Our long-term opportunity is unchanged, underpinned by structural megatrends which drive the acute need for scarce STEM talent. Whilst we're closely monitoring lead indicators across our markets as we proactively manage and navigate through challenging macroeconomic conditions in the short term, we are rigorously focused on ensuring we build the right platform to capture this opportunity for long-term sustainable growth. So supported by a resilient business model and robust financial position, we remain well positioned to source and place the best STEM talent the world needs. Thank you all for once again joining us this morning. As a reminder, we will be issuing our half year trading update on the 20th of June. So we're still done, and thank you all.