AGM Statement

12 November 2008

 

                                                                               

                  Hays plc: Annual General Meeting statement                   

 

Hays plc, the leading global specialist recruitment group, will hold its Annual
General Meeting today. Bob Lawson, Chairman, will make the following comments
to shareholders:

"On 9 October, we issued an Interim Management Statement for the quarter ended
30 September 2008. In that statement we stated that we had made a solid start
to the year recording 10% net fee growth (4% on a like-for-like basis*) in the
first quarter against an increasingly difficult economic environment. We also
made the following comments about market conditions and management actions:

Currently, in the United Kingdom demand for temporary placements remains
stable, except in Construction & Property and demand for permanent placements
continues to fall. In Australia, we are still seeing good growth in demand for
temporary placements but demand for permanent placements has started to fall.
In most of the other countries in which we operate, we are still seeing strong
growth in demand for our services. Whilst there is no doubt that many of our
markets are getting tougher, the experience of our management team, the
flexibility of our cost base, the increased diversification of the Group, and
the strength of our balance sheet positions us well to deal with these market
conditions. In the last two quarters we have continued to take action to reduce
our cost base in those markets already affected by the wider economic issues
and going forward we will continue to keep a tight control on costs, focus on
cash generation and react rapidly to changing market conditions.

These comments still apply today. We will provide a more detailed trading
update for the quarter ending 31 December 2008 on 8 January 2009."

 

* LFL is like-for-like growth, which represents organic growth of continuing
activities at constant currency.  No adjustment is made for the one additional
trading day in the quarter ended 30 September 2008 versus the same period last
year.

 

Enquiries

Hays plc                                                                              
Paul Venables       Finance Director                + 44 (0) 20 7383 2266             
Martin Abell        Investor Relations              + 44 (0) 20 7383 2266             
                                                                     
Brunswick                                                          
Gill Ackers                                         + 44 (0) 20 7404 5959                                             
Catherine Colloms                                                                                      
                                                                                      
                                                                                      

 

Reporting calendar

Trading statement for quarter ending 31 December 2008      8 January 2009  
                                                                      
Interim results for 6 months ending 31 December 2008       26 February 2009
                                                                      
Trading statement for quarter ending 31 March 2009         9 April 2009    
                                                                      
Trading statement for quarter ending 30 June 2009          9 July 2009     
                                                                      
Preliminary results for 12 months ending 30 June 2009      3 September 2009