TIDMRWA
RNS Number : 9151K
Robert Walters PLC
13 April 2018
ROBERT WALTERS PLC (THE "COMPANY")
Annual Financial Report
Copies of the Annual Report & Accounts of the Company for
the year ended 31 December 2017, the Circular to shareholders of
the Company, including Notice of the Annual General Meeting of the
Company to be held on Thursday, 17 May 2018, and the form of proxy
for use at the Annual General Meeting (all of which documents were
posted to shareholders on 12 April 2018), have been submitted to
the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for
inspection at: http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM
The Annual Report & Accounts 2017 is now available on the
Company's website at:
https://www.robertwalters.com/content/dam/robert-walters/corporate/investors/files/financial-reports/RW_Annual_Report_2017_web_FINAL.pdf
In accordance with Disclosure and Transparency Rule 6.3.5, the
information in the attached Appendix consisting of a Directors'
Responsibility Statement, principal risks and uncertainties and
related party transactions has been extracted unedited from the
Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2017 and
should be read in conjunction with the Company's final results for
the year ended 31 December 2017 which were announced in unedited
full text on Thursday, 1 March 2018.
Enquiries:
Alan Bannatyne, Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary
+44 (0) 20 7379 3333
APPIX
Directors' Responsibility Statement
We confirm that to the best of our knowledge:
-- The financial statements, prepared in accordance with
International Financial Reporting Standards, give a true and fair
view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or
loss of the Company and the undertakings included in the
consolidation taken as a whole; and
-- The Strategic Report includes a fair review of the
development and performance of the business and the position of the
Company and the undertakings included in the consolidation taken as
a whole, together with a description of the principal risks and
uncertainties that they face.
By order of the Board
Alan Bannatyne
Group Finance Director
28 February 2018
Principal risks and uncertainties
The Board considers the full range of business risks affecting
the Group on a regular basis, and takes action to address such
risks. The perceived key risks are as follows:
(i) Economic environment
Job availability and the level of candidate confidence in the
employment market are important factors in determining the total
number of recruitment transactions in a given year. Candidates are
less inclined to move jobs when the number of jobs available is
stagnant or in decline, which could lead to a deterioration in the
Group's financial performance.
The Group is geographically diversified, spanning 28 countries,
which reduces the reliance on the success of any particular market.
The Group also continues to develop its contract and Resource
Solutions businesses, both of which provide more resilient revenue
streams in the event of an economic downturn. Historically, the
Group has successfully diversified into other sectors to reduce its
concentration risk in the event of a downturn.
The Board's strategy when facing a slowdown in a market is to
balance the cost base, such that the impact on profit is mitigated,
against the perceived future benefit from the retention of key
staff. Historically, the Group has benefited substantially from
increased operational gearing as a result of its policy of
deliberately retaining key staff through economic downturns.
(ii) People Management
The Group relies heavily on recruiting and retaining talented
individuals with the right skill-sets to grow the business. In
addition, as the Group expands its operations in emerging markets
the supply of people with the required skills in specific
geographic regions may be limited. Failure to attract and retain
key employees with the required sales, management and leadership
skills may adversely affect the Group's financial results.
The Group's policy of linking bonuses to profitability in
discrete operating units has a high correlation to the retention of
efficient and effective members of staff.
The long-term incentive schemes that are detailed in note 18 to
the accounts form a key part of a wider strategy to improve levels
of staff retention, particularly of the Group's senior
employees.
Other elements of the strategy to improve staff retention and
maximise career opportunities include significant investment of
time and financial resources in employee training and development
including regular weekly appraisals, aimed at core consultant
competencies and focused on enhancing management potential. The
Group's culture and the associated processes help to increase
productivity and also improve the employee's alignment to the
business. A comprehensive approach to succession planning is also
in place across the Group.
The Group offers international career opportunities and actively
encourages the redeployment of existing talent to international
offices and also to establish new offices.
(iii) Business Model
Competition risk varies in each of the Group's main regions
depending on the maturity of the client and candidate market. The
emergence of new technology platforms such as social media for
recruitment purposes may also lead to increased competition.
The development of strong commercial relationships with clients
has enabled the Group to win and then maintain its contracts with
large global organisations and the Group also has a significant and
diverse income stream across the SME marketplace.
The Group reviews and monitors changes in technology and social
media trends to ensure that it evolves appropriately. The Group
continues to promote itself as a relationship recruiter operating
in specialised markets, ensuring its online presence is competitive
and provides a high-quality customer experience.
(iv) Brand and reputation
There is an inherent risk that the brand and reputation of the
Group could be impacted by a failure to maintain high-quality
service levels to both candidates and clients.
Quality control standards are maintained and reviewed for each
stage of the recruitment cycle with all new employees receiving
appropriate levels of training applicable to their role.
Candidate and client satisfaction surveys are carried out on a
regular basis, with directors addressing any negative feedback
directly with the client or candidate. A 'Contact us' email address
is available on the Group's website so any negative feedback or
improper conduct can be acted upon swiftly by the Chief Marketing
Officer and local senior management.
(v) Laws and regulations
The Group operates in a number of diverse jurisdictions and has
to comply with numerous domestic and international laws and
regulations, any change to which could have a detrimental effect on
the Group's financial performance.
To ensure compliance, our legal department works with leading
external advisors as required to monitor potential changes in
employment legislation across the markets in which we operate.
Contractual terms and conditions are thoroughly reviewed before
signing to ensure contract provisions are fully understood and
risks are fairly allocated between parties.
An escalation process exists such that contracts with
non-standard terms are reviewed and approved by the Chief Legal
Officer and Chief Financial Officer as appropriate.
(vi) Technology
The Group is reliant on its technological infrastructure to
maintain client and candidate data. A critical infrastructure or
system disruption could have a material impact on the Group's
financial results, whilst a loss of confidential and competitive
information can have an adverse impact on operations and the
reputation of the Group.
The Group maintains a comprehensive IT security policy, which is
reviewed on a regular basis, covering all areas of IT security from
user access through to server access.
All sensitive candidate and client information is held securely
with restricted access.
Appropriate guidance and training on the security and handling
of both manual and electronic documents including confidential and
sensitive data is provided to all staff.
The Group has a dedicated Chief Technology Officer and Group
Information Security Officer with specific remits to consider and
ensure that appropriate and reasonable controls are put in place,
particularly in respect of cyber-related threats and data
breach.
The Group continues to review and improve its Business
Continuity Plan to mitigate against any critical infrastructure
disruptions.
(vii) Foreign exchange
The Group operates under a number of functional currencies. The
main functional currencies of the Group are Pounds Sterling, the
Euro, Australian Dollars and Yen. Any unfavourable movements in the
foreign exchange rates may have an adverse effect on translation of
overseas operations, and subsequently the Group's Pounds Sterling
financial results.
Revenues and costs are in their functional currencies in the
local entities, which minimises the Group's transactional exposure.
Additionally, there are no material net foreign exchange exposures
to monetary assets and monetary liabilities.
The Group continues to monitor the sensitivity to foreign
currency fluctuations through performing regular sensitivity
analysis and reducing exposure wherever possible.
Related party transactions
Transactions between Robert Walters plc and its subsidiaries,
which are related parties, have been eliminated on consolidation
and are not disclosed in this note. The remuneration of key
management personnel who are deemed to be Directors has been
disclosed in the Report of the Remuneration Committee.
During the year, there were related party transactions totalling
GBP77,000 (2016: GBP40,000) with Tay Associates Limited, a related
party through a Director of Robert Walters plc. There were no
outstanding balances at 31 December 2017. All transactions were
undertaken on an arms-length basis.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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