Adecco profits soar as temp work picks up in Europe

The world's biggest temporary staffing group Adecco posted on Wednesday a 61-percent jump in third-quarter profits as the long-depressed European market perked up, beating expectations and sending its stock price soaring. For the July to September period, the Swiss company said its net profit soared to 191 million euros ($209.5 million) from 118 million euros in the third quarter of 2012. Analysts polled by Swiss financial newswire AWP had expected the temp group to rake in just 138 million euros during the quarter. Following the news, the price of shares in Adecco surged 6.66 percent to 70.50 Swiss francs a piece in late morning trading as the Swiss stock exchange's main index rose 1.07 percent. The company did meanwhile see its revenues slump five percent to 5.03 billion euros during the quarter, but stressed this was mainly due to the negative impact of currency fluctuations. In its main market, France, Adecco meanwhile continued to see its revenues slip, falling five percent to 1.3 billion euros. This still marked a clear improvement though over the first two quarters of the year, when the company's revenues in France fell 17 and 12 percent respectively. "With most European economies coming out of recession, we expect demand for flexible labour to increase," company chief executive Patrick De Maeseneire said in the earnings statement. In the third quarter, "we returned to growth in many countries in Europe and the pick-up in Italy, Germany and Spain is especially encouraging," he added. The company, which has been undergoing a restructuring and cost-cutting programme, meanwhile confirmed its target of reaching an Ebitda margin above 5.5 percent by 2015. Analysts hailed the results, with Patrick Hasenboehler of J. Safra Sarasin stressing the positive impact the company's cost-control measures had had on its margins. "Adecco released a convincing set of (third quarter) results," he said in a note.