As the year draws to a close, Christmas lights are switched on and I panic about which present to buy my wife, this week we cast an eye over 2012 and focus on the main share price winners and losers.
In the UK, despite a stagnant economy and fears of a double-dip recession, recruiter share prices have rallied during 2012 with a leader board headed by SThree (+31%) and Robert Walters (+20%). Hays (+15%) leads a well populated second tier, which contains Impellam (+13%), Matchtech (+12%), Empresaria (+12%) and Hydrogen (+11%). Hydrogen was on track to post an almost 50% price increase before an unfortunate profit warning wiped 30% off its shares in November.
An old stock market adage – a share that has fallen 90% is one that declined 80% and then halved – comes to mind when looking at the UK laggards. Despite experiencing a whopping 97% share price decline in 2011, Healthcare Locums has plummeted a further 33% so far this year after it was felled by a profit warning in the summer. Michael Page (-3%) is the worst performing of the industry bellwethers.
Overseas, Adecco (+9%) was the pick of the bunch among the generalist staffers after it announced in July that the company would buy back up to €400m (£323m) of its sharesas management believed the price was too low. To date only around a quarter has been purchased. Elsewhere, Dutch recruiter Brunel’s shares have rallied by an astonishing 51%.
In general, most recruiters had a satisfactory start to 2012. However, June was a very challenging month in part due to UK Jubilee celebrations. This was particularly unhelpful for Michael Page as June is normally its biggest revenue month of the year.
The pace of profit warnings gathered momentum and by early summer they came thick and fast with Matchtech and InterQuest warning in August, and Michael Page suffering three downgrades in three months throughout late summer and early autumn.
There have also been some interesting personnel movements during 2012. Charles-Henri Dumon departed from Michael Page. Royston Hoggarth exited Hays and was replaced by Nigel Heap. Russell Clements disclosed his intention to retire as chief executive of SThree next year.
Merry Christmas and, if new opportunities await you in 2013, a prosperous New Year.
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