Staffline sells PeoplePlus Group to Talent International for £12 million

LONDON: Staffline Group (AIM: STAF.L), the recruitment and training group, has disposed of its wholly owned subsidiary, PeoplePlus Group Limited to Talent International (UK) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Swipejobs Holdings, for cash consideration of £12.0m, which includes £2.0m of deferred consideration.

The consideration is on a cash free, debt free basis and subject to a deduction of £5.1m of advanced payments received in respect of future revenue. The net proceeds of the Disposal (including the deferred consideration) are expected to be £6.9m. The £2.0m of deferred consideration is contingent on the commencement of potential new contracts expected to take place within the next 12 months.

The Board intends to use the cash proceeds from the Disposal for a combination of Share Buy Backs and increasing funding capacity for the Group’s successful organic growth strategy.

PeoplePlus is a leading workplace training and employability business whose purpose is to help people transform their lives, get jobs and keep jobs, and develop their careers. The division works with employers to develop inclusive workforces and with central, local and devolved governments to support their economic and social policy ambitions. Creating social value in this way, PeoplePlus aims to ensure that every person of working age can participate in paid work, including vulnerable and disadvantaged people, as part of a more dynamic economy with greater levels of social inclusion in which no one is left behind.

For FY 2024, PeoplePlus contributed approximately £65m of revenues to the Group and generated profit before tax of approximately £1.3m, with gross assets of c.£16m at 31 December 2024.

Albert Ellis, Chief Executive Officer of Staffline, commented: “PeoplePlus has played an important part in developing Staffline’s service offering over a number of years but with our strategic ambitions centred on our fast growing recruitment activities as opposed to training and education, now feels like the opportune moment to implement this change.

Moving forward, we can have greater focus and cash resource for our market leading recruitment activities, which delivered outstanding results across 2024. We see significant opportunities for organic growth in our remaining recruitment divisions and will accelerate value creation for Staffline shareholders going forward.”