Jessica Johnson

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Michael Page International (MPGPF.PK), the U.K.'s second-largest recruitment company, dropped the most in three weeks today, after saying third-quarter profit in its home market declined and weakness in the financial sector has spread to other industries. The company gives its third-quarter update today. This is the first reporting bid since the company turned down a tentative £1.3bn bid from Adecco (AHEXF.PK) which was eventually pulled on September 16. Operating profit grew 11%, but MPI's share price has tumbled by 37% since August.

Short interest in MPI peaked on July 21 2008, when the company had 19.29% of its Market Cap out on loan (%MCOL). Since then there has been a significant amount of short covering - down to 12% on August 19, and eventually to 6.8% as of close of business on Thursday, the latest available data. Adecco has 7.7% MCOL, down from 11% in May, and Hays (HAYPF.PK) has 2%, down from 4% in August.

Please see this chart of MPI's %MCOL over the summer.

click to enlarge

MPI

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