14 June 2023

ROBERT WALTERS PLC

(the 'Company' or the 'Group')

Trading update

Robert Walters plc (LSE: RWA), the leading international recruitment group, today provides an update on current trading. Net fee income for the first two months of the second quarter was down year-on-year by 10%* (down 9% actual) (Q1 2023: 0%*, up 4% actual). It is now considered likely that profit for the full year ending 31 December 2023 will be significantly lower than current market expectations.

Reduced levels of candidate confidence and lengthening time to hire were signalled in the second half of 2022 and, contrary to the Board's prior expectations, are not yet showing sustained improvement. Conversely, recruitment market fundamentals such as job flow, candidate shortages and wage inflation remain solid, suggesting that when market confidence recovers there will likely be a return to meaningful growth.

The Group has invested significantly in both headcount and its global infrastructure over the last two years, and whilst appropriate cost reduction is central to the management of the current short-term pressure, we will protect our strategic core to ensure we can fully benefit from future growth opportunities as they arise.

The Group will publish a trading update for the second quarter ending 30 June 2023 on 6 July 2023.  

* Constant currency is calculated by applying prior period average exchange rates to local currency results for the current and prior years.

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Further information

About Robert Walters Group

The Robert Walters Group is a market-leading international specialist professional recruitment group. With over 4,400 staff spanning 31 countries, we deliver specialist recruitment consultancy, staffing, recruitment process outsourcing and managed services across the globe. We match highly skilled professionals to permanent, contract and interim roles across the disciplines of accountancy & finance, banking, engineering, HR, healthcare, technology, legal, sales, marketing, secretarial & support, and supply chain, logistics & procurement. Our client base ranges from the world's leading blue-chip corporates and financial services organisations through to SMEs and start-ups. www.robertwaltersgroup.com

Forward looking statements

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements.  These statements are made by the directors in good faith based on the information available to them at the time of their approval of this announcement and such statements should be treated with caution due to the inherent uncertainties, including both economic and business risk factors, underlying any such forward-looking information.