PageGroup's interim profit tumbles on persistent weak hiring

(Reuters) -British recruiter PageGroup's first-half profit tumbled 99% from a year earlier, as persistent macroeconomic uncertainty and tariff concerns dampened hiring activity, particularly in its top two markets, France and Germany.

The company, however, expects its annual profit to come in line with market expectations, as outlined in a trading update last month.

On Tuesday, PageGroup reiterated its warning from July that it experienced a "slight deterioration" in hiring activity in France and Germany towards the end of the first half, but confidence and trading in Asia and the U.S. were improving.

Europe's economic struggles, namely Germany's industrial slowdown and France's budgetary constraints, and global trade frictions have made conditions challenging for recruitment.

"Despite the uncertain outlook due to the unpredictable economic environment, we have a highly diversified and adaptable business model, a strong balance sheet and our cost base is under continuous review," CEO Nicholas Kirk said in a statement.

PageGroup reported pretax profit of 0.2 million pounds ($268,660) for the six-month period ended June 30, compared with 27.7 million pounds in the prior year.

Shares of the company were down about 1%, as of 0710 GMT.

($1 = 0.7444 pounds)

(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job and Nithyashree R B in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)