Following a series of upgrades in 2018, Hydrogen reported an 'in-line' adjusted PBT of £3m for the year to December 2018, up from £0.8m.
The recruitment specialist has issued positive FY results this morning, confirming the detailed guidance given in the trading update for the year ending December 2018 on 25 January. The highlights of the results are a strong performance across the group's operating territories (with that in the USA particularly notable, in our view).
Following our upgrade in November 2018, Hydrogen has confirmed another upgrade to PBT and cash levels due to robust trading.
The recruitment specialist has issued its full year trading update to end December this morning confirming that trading has remained robust across the group's regions. This strong performance pulls through a further upgrade for FY2018F and increases our confidence for the current year and beyond.
Hydrogen's management team has delivered an impressive turnaround in the business since 2015 and its measured confidence is clearly evident.
With PBT at the interims increasing by a factor of 6x to £1.1m and with the guidance for the full year that PBT will be 'substantially ahead of current market expectations' we are upgrading our adj.
The recruitment specialist has published a strong set of results for its first half period to end June, as indicated by the interim trading update in July. The group now signals that the full year "will be substantially ahead of current market expectations".
After a challenging period, due to over reliance on the Energy sector, we argue Hydrogen is at the start of an up-cycle as evidenced by the expectation of a 3yr CAGR in PBT of 52%, the return to a net cash position and a resumption in the dividend. This follows a transformational acquisition in 2017 of Argyll Scott which diversifies net fee exposure to new sectors, increases exposure to the faster growing economies of Asia and enables both revenue and cost synergies.
The specialist recruiter, undergoing a restructuring since the start of 2015, completed a significant acquisition in June 2017, with positive implications for future profitability and growth, in our view.