Shares in SThree dropped by more than 13 per cent yesterday after the technology recruitment company announced the surprise departure of its chief executive and analysts cut their financial expectations for next year.
Mark Dorman, 51, will step down at the end of this month after nearly three years in the role. He will be succeeded by Timo Lehne, senior managing director of SThree’s Germany, Austria and Switzerland division, its largest.
“I have agreed with the board that this is the right time for a change for both SThree and me, due to personal reasons,” Dorman said.
SThree revealed the news as it forecast that profits for the year just gone will have been bigger than ever but analysts reduced expectations for next year after the company said it would hold its profit margins steady.
In its trading update for the year to the end of November, SThree said it expected that net fees would have risen by 19 per cent compared with 2020. That was after a strong finish to its financial year as it racked up more than £100 million of net fee income between September and November, its first £100 million quarter.
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As a result the company expects to achieve a record £59 million pre-tax profit for the year.
SThree has cashed in on the booming post-lockdown jobs market. After putting their hiring plans on ice for much of the past two years, companies are looking to add to their workforce again. Similarly, many workers are exploring new opportunities, having been reluctant to switch jobs during the uncertainty of the pandemic.
The company, which started out as Computer Futures in 1986, operates under ten brands serving 9,000 clients in 14 countries.
It specialises in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and counts AstraZeneca and Morgan Stanley among its customers.
Despite the prospect of a record profit being announced at the full-year results next month, SThree shares fell 72p, or 13.2 per cent, to 474p yesterday.
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Although a £59 million profit would be SThree’s best ever, it is what the market had been expecting after a series of upgrades over the summer.
Analysts marked down their forecasts for 2022 after James Bilefield, the chairman, said that the company would “aim to maintain our profit margin at current levels” as it invests more money into the business and brings in more employees.