HHC Hexagon Human

    RNS Number : 0309E
  Hexagon Human Capital PLC
  23 September 2008
   

    Date:                          23 September 2008
    On behalf of:               Hexagon Human Capital plc ("Hexagon", the "Company" or the "Group")
    Embargoed until:          0700hrs

    Hexagon Human Capital plc 
    AGM Trading Update

    At the Company's Annual General Meeting to be held today at 1000hrs, Rob Walker, Chairman of Hexagon Human Capital plc, the UK's leading
provider of Senior Interim Managers and a leading Executive Search company, will give the following trading and business development
acquisition strategy update.

    "Despite the broader economic turmoil the Company has continued to trade strongly during the first half of the financial year. Trading
performance is in line with expectations, with further growth in revenues and trading profits in both our market leading interim management
business and our portfolio of specialist search businesses. We have a healthy pipeline of assignments across all our businesses and, whilst
mindful of current economic and financial market conditions, we remain cautiously optimistic about trading for the remainder of the
financial year to March 31, 2009.

    The Group's balanced portfolio of businesses in Senior Interim Management and Executive Search has in the Board's opinion provided a
strong defensive position in the face of a reduction in new jobs in the general economy. The Group's operations have no over dependence on
any single sector. The recent expansion into new geographies such as Dubai and the United States of America and our growth in sectors such
as the life sciences market in Continental Europe have provided further defensive strength.

    As the UK's leading provider of Senior Interim Managers, we are positioned to support our clients with the short term specialist skills
that they demand in these dynamic and uncertain times. Our client requirement levels have remained robust through the summer and the number
of new transactions has been consistent with the same period last year. Our Executive Search division enjoyed a record trading period in the
first quarter of this financial year due to strong demand for new senior management skills in most of our sectors. Indeed, performance in
Akamai (acquired April 2008 and focused on global financial markets and being rebranded as "Correlate Search") has exceeded our
expectations. The second quarter has seen demand fall back to budgeted levels and due to the senior nature of our work we remain confident
at this time that demand for our services will remain consistent in the second half of the year.

    Martin Wood, the founder of BIE, decided to retire early thereby reducing the Group's liability to deferred consideration by over �2m.
The BIE management transition to a new board of four high quality professionals, led by Nick Diprose, has proceeded particularly smoothly
and the performance of BIE has remained at previous levels, and in line with our expectations.

    Business Development and Acquisitions

    Hexagon came to market to deliver value to shareholders by achieving growth through both organic initiatives and a buy and build model.
During recent months, in response to the dramatically altered market sentiment and associated valuation metrics, the Group's acquisition
model has been modified. Hexagon has adopted an increasingly rigorous evaluation process which has a focus on cash management and key
operational metrics. The recently announced acquisition of Winchester, a small cash generative operation which expands the Group's
geographic reach and which should provide an immediate return, is reflective of this policy.

    The evolution of the Group's buy and build model to reflect amongst other things current market valuations has led the Company to
withdraw from a major transformational acquisition on which it has been working for the past 12 months. The abort fees (primarily advisors
costs) associated with the withdrawal from this transaction are expected to amount to �0.5m and will be written off in the results for the
six months to 30 September 2008. These costs are in addition to �0.2m of preliminary advisors fees written off in the year to 31 March
2008.

    Hexagon will continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities as they arise and it is pleasing that the executive team are able to source
targets such as Winchester which meet the Company's strict evaluation criteria."


    - Ends -

    Enquires to:

    Hexagon Human Capital plc                                        Tel: 020 7337 1133
    Jonathan Wright, Chief Executive Officer                         www.hexagonhc.com 
    Carl Thompson, Chief Financial Officer

    Brewin Dolphin Investment Banking (NOMAD)        Tel: 0845 270 8600
    Matt Davis/ Alison Barrow

    Redleaf Communications                                              hexagon@redleafpr.com
    Emma Kane/ Sanna Sumner/ Anna Dunkin                       Tel: 020 7822 0200

    
 
 
 Notes to Editors:




�         Hexagon Human Capital is the market-leader in providing senior interim 
management;



�         The Group floated on AIM on February 2007; 

�         It was established in 2004 by Jonathan Wright and Dr Swee Lip Quek with a strategy to buy and build in the interim management and
executive search sectors;
�         Hexagon has already built up a portfolio of profitable companies operating in a variety of sectors:
�         Archer Mathieson: A leading UK provider of interim management and executive recruitment in the specialist fields of finance, IT
and human resources; 
�         BIE Interim Executive: The UK*s leading senior interim management company;
�         Correlate Search: Provider of specialist executive search in the international financial services industry, with operations in the
UK and Dubai;
�         Euromedica: The UK*s leading life sciences and healthcare executive search provider with operations in the UK, Benelux, France,
Switzerland, Scandinavia and India;
�         Oxygen Executive Search: Providing leadership talent to UK and international clients in the retail financial services, industrial,
consumer, professional services and real estate sectors; enhanced US presence due to acquisition of the Winchester Group based in Atlanta
(September 2008)
�         Roberts & Corr: Providing board level search and HR consultancy to a number of major companies in their specialist sectors
including media, financial services, retail and management consultancy; and

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
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