Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 1-France launches competition probe into staffing firms

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UPDATE 1-France launches competition probe into staffing firms Jul 11th 2013, 07:50 Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:50am EDT * Adecco, Randstad both cooperating with investigation * Adecco sees no material impact * Randstad hopes for positive outcome * Shares slightly underperform ZURICH, July 11 (Reuters) - The French competition authority is investigating staffing companies including Switzerland-based Adecco and Dutch group Randstad, Adecco said on Thursday. Adecco, the world's largest staffing company, said in a brief statement that it and some of its rivals were under investigation concerning alleged violations of French competition law, adding it was fully cooperating. A spokesman said Adecco did not expect the investigation to have a material impact on the firm in its biggest market. Randstad, the number two staffing firm, also said it was cooperating and was confident of a positive outcome. A spokesman said he assumed the investigation concerned the unauthorised exchange of information, adding officials from the French authority had visited Randstad's office in Paris on Wednesday, seizing some documents. The French competition authority declined immediate comment. ING analyst Marc Zwartsenburg estimated possible fines for Adecco and Randstad at 29 million euros ($37.3 million) and 17.7 million euros ($22.8 million) respectively, extrapolating those figures from fines paid after an investigation in 2003-2004 that was settled in 2010. Zwartsenburg said that would translate into a 3-4 percent impact on earnings per share for both firms but the hit would be much smaller if postponed as in the previous case. Shares in Adecco and Randstad were both up 0.6 percent at 0724 GMT, slightly underperforming the European industrial goods and services index which was up 1 percent. Adecco, which also competes with U.S.-based Manpower , said in May it was starting to close recent underperformance to the rest of the market in France, although conditions remained challenging. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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