highlights
- Q2 2020 organic growth -25.2%
- Q2 2020 underlying EBITA € 67m
- Q2 2020 EBITA margin 1.5%
- revenue decline in Europe and US softening through Q2, in sync with easing lockdowns; resilient topline in Rest of the world.
- gross margin 18.7%, down 130bp YoY impacted by significant COVID-19 effects and slowing perm.
- positive EBITA margin of 1.5%; recovery ratio of 42% driven by agile cost management and governmental schemes.
- global market leadership strengthened by resilient and diversified portfolio; digital field steering driving competitive growth.
- resilient countercyclical Q2 free cash flow € 530m.
- June organic sales growth down 21%; volumes in early July indicate further positive momentum.
"During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, our key priority remains the health and safety of our employees, candidates, clients and other stakeholders," says CEO Jacques van den Broek. "I'm incredibly proud of my Randstad colleagues given their everlasting commitment and dedication with which they are responding to these challenging times. Our Q2 results demonstrate the strong operational agility of our highly experienced management teams, while underpinning the resilience of our diversified portfolio and free cash flow generation.
Trading conditions in the second quarter reached the low point in April when country lockdowns were most intensified. Since then, the revenue decline started to gradually ease into May and June in most of our geographies. Visibility remains very limited, with ongoing high macroeconomic uncertainty and some recent signs of regional lockdowns again. We were pleased with our positive EBITA in Q2, reflecting a strong recovery ratio of 42%. Our free cash flow came in high at € 530 million, marking the countercyclical nature of our working capital requirements, and hence the resilience of our free cash flow generation through the cycle. This further solidifies our strong liquidity and solvency position.
Building on the 'safely back to work' alliance with our industry peers and supported by governments, employers and trade unions in 26 countries, Randstad has ensured the safe and healthy return of more than 90,000 people to the workplace since the start of COVID-19. The great spirit amongst our workforce and successful roll-out of our digitally enhanced activity-based field steering model will be instrumental to our performance going forward. We are certain that Randstad has never been better positioned to further strengthen its global market leadership."
video
watch our CEO’s video on this quarter’s news
Attachments
for more information
David Tailleur - Director Investor Relations
david.tailleur@randstad.com or +31 6 1246 2133
Steven Vriesendorp - Investor Relations Officer
steven.vriesendorp@randstad.com or +31 6 2692 8529
about randstad
Randstad is a global talent leader with the vision to be the world’s most equitable and specialized talent company. As a partner for talent and through our four specializations - Operational, Professional, Digital and Enterprise - we provide clients with the high-quality, diverse and agile workforces that they need to succeed in a talent scarce world. We help people secure meaningful roles, develop relevant skills and find purpose and belonging in their workplace. Through the value we create, we are committed to a better and more sustainable future for all. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Randstad operates in 39 markets and has approximately 40,000 employees. In 2023, we supported 2 million talent to find work and generated a revenue of €25.4 billion. Randstad N.V. is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam. For more information, see www.randstad.com.
for more information
Elise Martin-Davies
+31 (0)6 1322 5136
press@randstad.com