Sweden – NGS Group’s revenues during the fourth quarter increase by 30% as profits increase
11 February 2022
The Swedish care and education staffing company NGS Group AB (NGS: SS) reported revenue yesterday for the fourth quarter, which ended on December 31, 2021. Revenue increased by 29.7% from the quarter last year.
(Mkr) | Q4 2021 | Q4 2020 | Change | Q4 2021 (EUR million) |
Income | 138.2 | 106.6 | 29.7% | 13.0 |
Operating profit | 6.0 | 3.0 | 98.9% | 0.5 |
Operating margin | 4.4% | 2.8% | – | – |
The result of the period | 4.3 | 2.6 | 63.0% | 0.4 |
Ingrid Nordlund, CEO, said: “The last quarter of the year shows sales growth of 30% and a doubling of operating profit compared with the corresponding quarter last year.”
“NGS’s strong growth is largely due to the care staff who continue to be very successful, recruitment and interim services for specialists have also shown significant growth, as has the business within socionom (social work) staffing,” said Nordlund. “We see a continued increase in demand for various categories of highly specialized personnel in both the private and public sectors. The price pressure that became a consequence of the pandemic’s entry has decreased and we are now working with good margins in the above areas. ”
“The fourth quarter was characterized by sharp changes between business opportunities based on our customers’ strong demand for qualified staff and the sick leave that affected both our own staff and our candidates,” adds Nordlund.
Revenue by geography
(Mkr) | Q4 2021 | Q4 2020 | Change | Q4 2021 (EUR million) |
Sweden | 136.2 | 104.2 | 30.7% | 12.8 |
Norway | 1.9 | 1.7 | 12.6% | 0.1 |
Finland | – | 0.5 | – | 0.0 |
The company said that the fourth quarter was partly negatively affected due to Covid-19 as planned efforts in healthcare continued to be postponed to the future. Healthcare staff in Sweden, however, reported a sharp increase in sales but were burdened during the quarter with high sick pay costs due to the spread of Covid-19.
Nordlund said: “In healthcare, competition for staff, with high wage demand as a result, poses major challenges from a profitability perspective. As a result of Covid-19’s rampant development during the quarter, we have been hit by high sick leave figures with associated costs for sick pay. These have had a negative effect on the operating margin. Medical staff still have challenges in terms of demand and margin levels, but quarter four was the quarter when we passed last year’s sales. ”
“The school staff shows, despite challenges with high sickness absence among our teaching staff, growth also this quarter,” Nordlund added. “With easing of restrictions during the current quarter of 2022, we look forward to greater availability for our staff and opportunities to meet demand from our customers.”
Going forward, Nordlund said, “With positive future prospects, we have a strong focus on building our organization with new recruitment of internal staff to meet the strong demand in the market. We at NGS are proud to have managed to achieve significant growth both in terms of sales and earnings and look forward with confidence to 2022, as there are many indications that the conditions that affect our business will be further stabilized and improved. ”
NGS Group also reported sales for the full year increased by 14.7% to SEK 495.9 million (EUR 46.75 million).
The share in NGS Group closed yesterday at SEK 23.80 (€ 2.24), a decrease of 6.6% on the day. The company has a market capitalization of SEK 213.84 million (EUR 20.16 million).