House of HR outperforming the market in 2020

Roeselare, 8 April 2021 - House of HR closed 2020 with a solid performance in what is considered an unprecedented year. The group has landed with an EBITDA margin above 11% thanks to its diversified portfolio as to geographies, segments and sector exposure and was able to limit revenue decline to -10,4 %. Thanks to a strong recovery in 2020Q4, a prudent capital structure, a sound cash position and an extraordinary resilience, House of HR is ready to continue its high growth ambitions in 2021.

Despite the unprecedented economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, House of HR can look back at a strong 2020. Sure, the HR-group witnessed a sharp drop, mainly driven by uncertainty in the second quarter of 2020, following the rapid spread of Covid-19 and the announced lockdowns. But House of HR was able to navigate effectively and can look back at an agile crisis management. A consistent recovery was visible with total 2020 sales 10,4% lower than the year before. All operating companies (‘powerhouses’) and brands contributed to this rebound.

Reported total sales for 2020 amount to approx. 1.6 billion euro (approx. 1.8 billion euro in 2019), and a EBITDA of 178,7 MIO euro (219,4 MIO euro in 2019). The EBITDA margin was 11,2 % (12,3 % in 2019). The group produced positive EBITDA during all months of 2020 and showed a sound cash position thanks to a careful and rigorous follow-up of its cash collections as well as the countercyclical nature of the working capital and its low concentration of risk per client. Despite the impact of the pandemic on the overall results, House of HR has been capable of maintaining a strong cash position, whilst keeping a prudent capital structure.

Amid Covid-19, House of HR outperformed other well-known HR service providers such as Randstad, Adecco, Manpower when it comes to organic sales growth, EBITDA and EBITDA
margin.

2021: a year of opportunities

Throughout the whole year, House of HR has remained focused on delivering strong results, and continued building for the future. It successfully launched a 200 million euro Senior Unsecured Notes program. Andres Cano, House of HR’s CFO comments: "At the end of March 2021 House of HR had over 400 million euro cash, which the group will use to further grow both organically and via acquisitions. A nice kick-off was the acquisition of Solyne (Netherlands) and Greenworking (France) in January 2021. We will continue investing in digital initiatives and strengthening our leadership in our core business. We will continue to implement our strategy towards specialization, with a focus on key markets: Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and France.’ House of HR’s CEO Rika Coppens adds: ‘The acquisitions we are currently looking at, are mostly in the segments of healthcare and IT.’

Non-financial 2020 highlights

2020 was a strong year for House of HR, not only in financial terms. The group was ranked the 25th largest player in the HR-field on a global level, and 9th on the European scene. Furthermore, House of HR received three employer awards (Gritt, Continu and Accent) and it became a corporate member of the World Employment Confederation.

Rika Coppens, House of HR’s CEO looks both back and forward with positive feelings and confidence: ‘as strange as it might sound, we feel 2020 has been an amazing year for us, Happy Rebels. Our people have shown an extraordinary agility, resilience and flexibility. For all these reasons, we feel confident that 2021 is going to be the year of the Happy Rebound.’

End of the press release.