Michael Page says on track after strong first quarter

(Adds CEO, analyst comments, detail)

By Li-mei Hoang

LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - British staff recruitment firm Michael Page is on track to meet full-year earnings expectations after posting a 10.9 percent rise in underlying quarterly gross profit, boosted by strong demand across the world, it said on Tuesday.

The company, which mainly finds candidates to fill permanent positions, said gross profit for the first quarter rose to 135.6 million pounds ($199 million) from 126.6 million a year earlier.

Chief Executive Steve Ingham said he could increase staff numbers to around 6,000 people, from about 5,680 currently, after strong growth in key markets including Germany, the United (Shenzhen: 000925.SZ - news) States, China and Latin America.

Gross profit in Germany, which accounts for 6 percent of the group total, grew by 17 percent in the first quarter, while China and the United States grew 18 and 11 percent respectively.

The firm also said the number of permanent jobs it had filled grew by 10.9 percent in the first quarter, on a like for like basis, while temporary placements were up 11 percent.

Last week, rival Hays (LSE: HAS.L - news) said it expected an improvement in second half operating profit after reporting a underlying 8 percent rise in third quarter net fees.

However, Michael Page said adverse exchange rate moves cut first-quarter profit by around 5 million pounds.

Ingham said the company, which has about 100 million pounds in net cash, would probably return some capital to shareholders in the second half if market conditions remained similar to the first quarter.

"100 million is probably stronger than we need to be, it's slightly higher than where we expected to be at this stage of the year," he said.

"The chances are that we are going to return cash in the second half and we will give total clarity as to how we are going to do that."

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the company were broadly flat by 0753 GMT.

"Despite FX headwinds, management remains comfortable with consensus market expectations and we maintain our 2015 earnings forecasts," said Citi analysts who have a "buy" rating on the stock.

Analysts on average expect Michael Page to make a full-year pretax profit of 96.2 million pounds, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of 17.

($1 = 0.6818 pounds) (Editing by Paul Sandle and Mark Potter)