Recruitment company CPL has bought a pharmaceutical and life sciences recruiting specialist in the UK which, coincidentally, also has the initials CPL.
CPL Resources has acquired just under 90% of Clinical Professionals Limited.
The deal is worth €8m of which €5.1m has been paid with the remainder contingent on certain targets being met.
Meanwhile, CPL Resources today published its full year results which show that revenues grew by 6.6% to €394m.
It also reported a 7% increase in gross profit to €59m, but said its pre-tax profits were down 2% to €14m.
The board has recommended a final dividend of five cent per share, which will bring the total dividend for the year to 9.75 cent per share.
CPL's chief executive Anne Heraty noted that the employment market continues to improve with skills shortages in some key sectors.
She said a "two speed labour market" is now evident where there are shortages of highly skilled professionals in certain sectors and a high rate of unemployment still persisting across certain parts of the labour market.
Ms Heraty said that many of the skills shortages are in sectors where CPL have a strong presence such as ICT, healthcare, pharmaceutical and finance. Companies in these sectors are looking internationally for talent.
In its results statement, CPL said that its permanent fee revenue increased by 15.8% to €24m during the year. Leading contributors to growth were the company's international businesses, particularly its healthcare business.
Meanwhile, revenues generated from temporary assignments in the year to the end of June came to €369.3m, an increase of 6%.
Ms Heraty said that the company's priorities for 2016 will be to stay focused on growing its net fee income and profit before tax while expanding its footprint in the UK and internationally.
"Employment growth was strong in the past year although we are seeing skills shortages in certain sectors. We believe we have the opportunity to grow further in Ireland as demand for skilled talent intensifies," the CEO said.
"Our performance improved in the second half of the year to 30 June 2015 and while we have limited visibility particularly in our permanent placement business we believe our recent investments position us well for the future," she added.
Shares in the company moved sharply higher in Dublin trade today.
