The information contained within this announcement is deemed by Staffline Group Plc to constitute inside information pursuant to Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended. 

25 February 2025

Staffline Group plc

("Staffline", the "Company" or the "Group")

Disposal of PeoplePlus Group Limited

Strategic disposal creates a pure-play recruitment platform with market leading reach across the UK and Ireland

Cash proceeds to fund Share Buy Backs and working capital for growth

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

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*ᶧ 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.

I would like to thank all the staff at PeoplePlus and wish them a prosperous future under their new owners.

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."

*These figures are unaudited and provisional.

ᶧexcludes intercompany debtor balance of £23.4m

For further information, please contact:

Market Abuse Regulation:

For the purposes of MAR, Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1055 and the UK version of such implementing regulation, the person responsible for arranging for the release of this Announcement on behalf of the Company is Daniel Quint, Chief Financial Officer.

About Staffline

Staffline is one of the UK's leading Recruitment groups. It has two divisions:

Recruitment GB

The Recruitment GB business is a leading provider of flexible blue-collar workers, supplying up to c.35,000 staff per day on average from around 400 sites, across a wide range of industries including supermarkets, drinks, driving, food processing, logistics and manufacturing.

Recruitment Ireland 

The Recruitment Ireland business is a leading end to end solutions provider operating across multiple industries, ten branch locations and ten onsite customer locations, supplying c.4,500 staff per day on average, and offering RPO, MSP, temporary and permanent solutions across public and private sectors throughout the island of Ireland.