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Profits surge at Highams
Niche recruiter Highams Systems Services (HSS) is winning new clients after hoisting annual profits 130 per cent to £303,000 pre-tax.The Caterham, Surrey-based company, which also provides IT and other consultancy and kindred services to insurance and financial companies, increased revenues 20 per cent to £9 million in the year to March, which it ended with cash up from £4,000 to £176,000 and no borrowings.
Chaired by significant shareholder and former stockbroking chief Ken Ford, Highams drew a third of last year's revenue growth from new clients. Managing director Mark de Lacey says the current market is good, as companies in its sectors adapt to new possibilities in IT and e-commerce, while those in insurance prepare themselves for the impact of next year's European Union Solvency 11 reserve requirements, and those in banking adjust for the impending Basle 111 global capital adequacy ratios.
Highams, which has been hiring to add to its mostly long-serving staff, increased the proportion of job-specific contracting recruitment, which is relatively more profitable and brings more repeat business, to 65 per cent of the total, as against 'lumpier' and more volatile permanent recruitment, which accounted for 35 per cent. With good banking analysts commanding £550 to £600 a day, the target is 80 per cent contracting and 20 per cent permanent.
de Lacey wants to take Highams further into the asset management sector, where it already has a useful toe hold in Belgium, and sees Germany and Holland as particularly attractive markets. The company is opening a London office in the autumn to improve its client network and attract more sales people of the right calibre, and remains open-minded about corporate acquisitions.
Analysts see Highams increasing pre-tax profits to £400,000 this year, with £500,000 on the cards for 2012-13, and bulls suggest £800,000 pre-tax is a possibility for 2013-14. By then, the company, which has been nursed back to health by the present board after previous losses, might have decided to return to the dividend list.
Highlighted at 2p by Growth Company Investor in 2009, Highams shares have hit 4p over the past year and now trade at 3p, up 0.25p today, valuing the company at £2.1 million. A prospective p/e ratio of six seems grudging, and the shares should make further progress over the medium term.
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