Gattaca plc (LON:GATC), the specialist staffing business, has announced its financial results for the six months ended 31 January 2026.
Financial Highlights
| Continuing operations | 2026 H1 | 2025 H1 | Variance |
| Revenue (£m) | 212.4 | 193.5 | +10% |
| Net Fee Income (NFI)1 (£m) | 21.4 | 18.9 | +13% |
| Operating profit (£m) | 2.6 | 0.5 | +431% |
| Underlying profit before tax2 (£m) | 3.0 | 1.0 | +187% |
| Profit before tax (£m) | 2.6 | 0.8 | +226% |
| Profit after tax (£m) | 1.8 | 0.5 | +268 |
| (Loss)/profit after tax from discontinued operations | (0.1) | 0.1 | – |
| Group profit after tax | 1.8 | 0.6 | +174% |
| Basic earnings per ordinary share from continuing underlying operations (pence) | 6.9 | 2.2 | +215% |
| Basic earnings per share (pence) | 5.6 | 2.0 | +174% |
| Net cash (£m) | 13.0 | 16.8 | -19% |
| Interim dividend (pence) | 1.33 | 1.0 | +33% |
Highlights
| · | Group NFI of £21.4 million, an increase of 13% year-on-year (“YoY”) |
| – Group like-for-like3 (“LFL”) NFI of £20.4 million up 8% (2025 H1: £18.9 million). | |
| – Infrastructure sector, the largest contributor to Group NFI (34%), pleasingly showed 6% growth with particularly strong growth within Water sector. | |
| – Defence sector returned to YoY growth with a strong H1, delivering 29% YoY growth and reversing the decline 2025 H1 to exceed the performance achieved in 2024 H1. | |
| – Energy sector performed strongly with 13% YoY growth as our strategic investment continues to mature. | |
| – Contract vs Statement of Work (“SoW”) vs Permanent split 77% / 4% / 19% of Group NFI (2025 H1: 74% / 6% / 20%). | |
| – LFL Contract NFI up 15% YoY, with the positive momentum achieved in 2025 H2 continued in H1 2026. | |
| – LFL Permanent NFI down 4% YoY, management are cognisant that market conditions remain subdued. | |
| – All segments, excepting Gattaca Projects SoW, progressed against prior year comparators. Gattaca Projects SoW revenue down 8% YoY, due to timing delays on major client programmes, with activity expected to remain subdued into the second half of the year. | |
| · | Group continuing underlying profit before tax rose to £3.0 million (2025 H1: £1.0 million) reflecting stronger trading performance and margin focus. |
| · | Total Group sales headcount at 31 January 2026 reduced by 7% YoY. The Group continued to focus on operational efficiency and disciplined resource allocation, while maintaining investment in target sectors. |
| · | Net cash of £13.0 million (31 January 2025: £16.8 million) due to: |
| – Working capital absorption as contractor numbers have increased; | |
| – Cash paid for the InfoSec People acquisition; and | |
| – Final dividend payment in respect of FY25. | |
| · | Interim dividend of 1.33 pence per share (2025 H1: £1.0 pence). |
Strategic update
Continued emphasis on developing the four identified strategic priorities for sustainable profitable growth:
External Focus
| · | Consolidated our recruitment brands into one powerhouse brand in Matchtech, operating across all our sectors, services and skills, boosting client awareness, strengthening candidate engagement, and enhancing our employer value proposition. Placements generated through our website increased by 30%, and registrations also rose by 3%, reflecting continued positive momentum. |
| · | Completed the acquisition of InfoSec People to expand our Cyber & Security offering, increasing capability, market reach, and our ability to support clients in critical environments. |
| · | Deployed our enhanced sales plan, increasing focus and setting our roadmap to becoming a market leader in our chosen sectors. Elevated sales engagement through more in‑person client activity, stronger social media outreach, and effective use of our rebrand to drive leads, deepen awareness and build new relationships. |
| · | Improving client feedback rating of 8.9 in 2026 H1, increased from 8.8 in FY25 and 8.8 in FY24. |
Culture
| · | People engagement remains stable at 8.4 for 2026 H1 (FY25: 8.4) and attrition improved to 27% at 31 January 2026 (31 January 2025: 30%), demonstrating our focus on culture is fully embedded in the business. |
| · | Winner of The Inclusive Culture Initiative Award at the Inclusive Awards 2025 and Highly Commended for the Diversity Initiative of the Year award at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation Awards. |
| · | Prioritised improving peer relationships as a key focus for 2026 and created more opportunities for internal interaction and engagement professionally, socially, and through volunteering. |
| · | Continued to support the future of STEM skills through provision of financial bursaries to students studying Engineering at Portsmouth University and providing employability skills guidance to STEM students from underrepresented groups through partnering with both charities and educational establishments. |
Operational Performance
| · | Average NFI per sales head, and per total heads, have both increased by 21% YoY |
| · | Achieved ISO27001 certification, strengthening our information security standards and reinforcing client trust. |
| · | Created Matchtech AI and automations programme (MAIA) across front line sales and back-office customer experience and efficiency |
Cost Rebalancing
| · | Maintained our ratio of sales to support at 31 January 2026, 71:29 (2025 H1: 71:29). |
| · | Further progress with our corporate entity simplification resulted in the removal of one entity from the Group structure, with a further three legacy entities currently in the process of being eliminated. |
Outlook
The persistent macroeconomic headwinds impacting the broader recruitment sector affected both client demand and candidate sentiment, reducing volume and extending recruitment timelines. Specifically, permanent recruitment remains subdued, and we anticipate this trend to continue in the medium term. Despite this backdrop, our strategic focus remains on the sectors where we believe we have the capability to become the dominant provider, expanding our service offering to support our customers further, and continue to take market share as we have in 2026 H1. We will continue to invest organically, with the aim of 10% sales headcount growth this year in our core markets, and to screen for further bolt-on acquisitions across all our service lines, all supported by rigorous, proactive cost management.
Group guidance for FY26 continuing underlying profit before tax remains at £4.5 million.
Commenting, Matthew Wragg, Chief Executive Officer of Gattaca said:
“I am pleased to announce a strong H1 performance as we see our positive momentum continue to build and to report that the Group is trading in line with upgraded expectations. Our strategic investments in growth opportunities are delivering and we have the majority of our sectors experiencing year on year growth.
The InfoSec team has performed well, enhancing the Group’s cyber capability and contributing positively to our momentum during the period. This has now been integrated into our systems and we can now begin to bring this enhanced capability to Group clients.
With a strengthened technology platform, a growing customer base and continued improvements in operational efficiency, the Group is well positioned for further growth. However, given the volatility of the external environment, we remain measured in our outlook as we focus on delivering sustainable, long-term growth.”
The following footnotes apply, unless where otherwise indicated, throughout these Interim Results:
1. NFI is calculated as revenue less contractor payroll costs.
2. Continuing underlying results exclude the NFI and (loss)/profit before taxation of discontinued operations (2026 H1: £(0.1)m, 2025 H1: £0.1m), non-underlying items within administrative expenses primarily related to restructuring costs (2026 H1: £0.3m, 2025 H1: £0.3m), amortisation of acquired intangibles (2026 H1: £0.0m, 2025 H1: £0.0m), and net finance income excluding foreign exchange gains and losses(2026 H1: £0.1m, 2025 H1: £0.2m).
3. Like‑for‑like results exclude the contribution from the recently acquired InfoSec People business, which was not part of the Group in the prior comparative period.
4. In FY25, as a result of changes in the Group’s operational structure and strategic focus, certain smaller divisions that were previously reported within the Other aggregated segment were absorbed into the Energy, Defence and Digital Technology sectors. In addition, a small team previously within Infrastructure moved over to the Energy sector. As a result, the Group’s reported segmental analysis for HY25 has been restated to ensure comparability with this.
5. The Group reassessed its operating segment disclosures following changes in internal management reporting. As a result, certain segments that no longer met the quantitative thresholds in IFRS 8 for separate disclosure, have been aggregated and reported within the “Other” segment. Prior‑period comparatives have been restated accordingly to ensure comparability.
6. During FY25, Technology, Media & Telecoms segment was renamed Digital Technology.
