The Irish recruitment company Marlborough is on the acquisition trail, and is willing to spend up to £30 million, the firm's chief executive has said. Speaking after Marlborough's annual general meeting, Mr David McKenna said such a move would propel the company's operations to a new scale.
Mr McKenna said he was not unduly worried about Marlborough's stagnant share price, insisting it was a victim of industry, rather than individual, negative sentiment.
"We expect to increase our organic growth again this year, but we are looking for acquisitions at this moment," Mr McKenna said. He said the company would consider paying "anything up to £20 million or £30 million, or anything as small as £3 million or £4 million" for the right target.
"We feel that we have to take that route, whether in the next 12 months or the next 24 months, just to put the company at a different standard, a different scale on the marketplace," he added.
While such a purchase in the United States would represent a significant shift in Marlborough's business, he said, it would provide a greater geographical spread.
"At this moment We have two offices in Australia as well, employing 23 people. It would be a big shift, but then again the US is the biggest and most secure market in the world for the recruitment industry," he said.
Shareholders at the annual general meeting heard that the company had increased its profitability and turnover, and continued to open new regional offices. The company now has ten bureau, and a staff of 200.
Mr McKenna said he had confidence that this success would eventually be reflected in the share price: "I think the share price is an industry issue at the moment. The UK price/earnings multiples at this time are very low, because in the last six months alone at least half a dozen UK plcs in our industry have come out with profit warnings or some kind of bad news, and the industry as a whole is getting marked down because of it."
"But we're confident that as long as we keep doing our job, the strength will return in the share price. We have very strong institutional investors on board and they are staying with us," he added.
