Despite an upbeat profit update and presentation to the Macquarie Australia conference in Sydney yesterday, shares in online jobs group, SEEK (SEK), ended just 1% lower at $17.13, after falling by 2% in early trading.
SEEK shares recovered slowly during the day after the early mauling which was a flow on from the 1.3% plunge on the tech heavy Nasdaq market in the US.
With its strong online business model, SEEK shares have been taking a small whack in the past month in the wake of the easing on Nasdaq.
The increased volatility in the past six weeks or so has ended a strong surge in the company’s share price from just over $12 in February to just over $18 a few weeks ago.
The update from the company seems to have stopped the sharp fall early yesterday.
In it SEEK directors said the company was on track to meet its guidance for the second half of the 2013-14 financial year.
"Based on the year-to-date results, SEEK re-affirms the H2 FY14 guidance issued as part of its H1 FY14 results presentation to the market in February 2014," SEEK said in a slide presentation to the Macquarie Conference in Sydney.
In February, SEEK reported a net profit excluding significant items of $87.4 million for the first half of 2013/14, up from $67.5 million for the same period of 2012-13.
SEEK chief executive Andrew Bassat said at the time that he expected net profit in the second half to exceed that for the first half.
The company seems to be on track to achieve that, especially with the ANZ job ads survey showing four successive months of gains, with the number of jobs advertised in April 1.5% up on the same month last year.
That was the first positive annual growth for two years.
SEK 1Y – Seek maintains guidance for the year
SEEK also said yesterday that it was still awaiting regulatory approval for the acquisition of the Singapore assets of Kuala Lumpur-based online employment service JobStreet.
SEEK announced in February that it would acquire JobStreet for $580 million. JobStreet serves markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
And in an update of another transaction, SEEK told the conference that its Chinese subsidiary Zhaopin had filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US for a forthcoming float, provided market conditions were good.
Zhaopin is the second largest online recruitment services provider in China, which Seek believes is set to become the world’s biggest online employment market place.
SEEK also indicated that is still considering a float of its international student recruitment business IDP Education in this calendar year, subject to market conditions.
SEEK announced plans to float IDP, in November 2013.
TIDP is a recruitment business half-owned by SEEK, with the rest owned by 38 Australian universities.
