Hays sees further growth after full-year profit rise

LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - British recruiting firm Hays said it saw clear opportunities to grow further in the year ahead after it posted an underlying 9 percent rise in full-year net fees on strong demand in all of its regions.

The company, which places workers in areas such as finance, construction and IT (Other OTC: ITGL - news) , said it was on track to deliver its aim of broadly doubling group operating profits by 2018, despite a 9.6 million pound foreign exchange headwind.

Pretax profit rose 18 percent to 156.1 million pounds ($241.75 million)for the year ended June 30, in line with analysts expectations, up 18 percent on last year's figure of 132.3 million pounds. Net fees rose to 764.2 million pounds. ($1 = 0.6457 pounds) (Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, Editing by Paul Sandle)