BusinessLive writes that recruitment group Adcorp had a mountain to climb to realise its 2022 target of R1bn in earnings, announced alongside its results on Monday.  

The company, under the new leadership of CEO Innocent Dutiro, recorded a headline loss per share for the year ended February, partly on a R478m goodwill write-off, and one-offs of a further R251m.  Dutiro’s team, including new chief financial officer Cheryl-Jane Kujenga, has spent the past few months cleaning a "mess" left by former CEO Richard Pike, which Adcorp catalogues as underperforming acquisitions, an over-geared balance sheet, over-generous pay to executives, governance lapses and an adverse legislative environment.  Though its professional services arm grew earnings 15%, profit from support services plunged 30%, training services was more than 100% weaker and industrial services — Adcorp’s largest profit contributor at 55% of earnings — fell 9%.  Like its peers, Adcorp has been hobbled by SA’s stagnant economy and unemployment.  Adcorp’s opportunity would be in addressing SA’s skills gap and it says:  "It’s a travesty that our training business is underscale in terms of its performance."

• Read this report by Giulietta Talevi in full at BusinessLive

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