Macdonald and Company acquires of 50% of Command Recruitment- Prime People

The Hong Kong subsidiary of global specialist recruitment company, Prime People, has acquired over 50% of the equity capital of Command Recruitment.

According to Prime, Macdonald and Company acquired 60% of the equity capital of the "award-winning" recruitment company for a consideration of HK$9.9m funded from the group's existing cash reserves, the group announced on Wednesday.

With visibility spanning across Asia and the Middle East from its Hong Kong headquarters, turnover for Command Recruitment slipped from HK$20.6m in 2015 to HK$16.4m for the year ended 30 June 2016.

Profit before tax also dropped to HK$0.9m during the period from HK$3.9m in 2015, alongside a decline in net assets to HK$5.8m from HK$8.8m.

The company also announced that the key management of Command will remain with the business post-acquisition, retaining the 40% of its equity capital that was not acquired by Macdonald and Company.

Having said that, under the terms of the shareholders'agreement, Macdonald retained the right to purchase Command's remaining equity capital after 30 June 2018.

Robert Macdonald, executive chairman of the company, spoke of a range of opportunities arising from the investment.

"This transaction adds considerably to the Group's client reach and our span of services in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. The fit with our current business is complimentary and we have identified a range of opportunities arising from the investment."

Macdonald also mentioned the strength of the group's position and further opportunities for hiring talented experts.

"The long-established, multi-award-winning team at Command considerably strengthens the group's position as the most trusted recruitment advisor to the Real Estate, Built Environment, and Infrastructure sectors globally. The investment will create a combined team with considerable size, capability and knowledge in the Asia and Middle East regions and follows many years of successful professional collaboration.

"The group's integrated global platform is the perfect environment for Command to further its pioneering work hiring talented experts to design and build some of the world's largest infrastructure and real estate projects."