The Investment Column: Solid growth plans make Michael Page worth holding

African Eagle's strategy to keep to stable regions give it a good chance; Sail into growth with Raymarine boating kit

Turnover was up 22 per cent for the first half, whileoperating profit shot 79 per cent higher at £30.6m. For the first time in three years, every region showed growth.

The most encouraging area was continental Europe, which had suffered a prolonged slump. Yesterday's results saw a fivefold increase in continental profits to £7.8m.

Here the most important country is France, which returned to growth towards the end of the fourth quarter of 2004.

As a group, Michael Page is still a long way behind the peak profits seen in 2001 (more than £62m at the pre-tax level) and areas such as continental Europe are still difficult.

It is just that, relative to more recent times, the environment has improved greatly, Terry Benson, the chief executive, said. Certainly, global growth remains under something of a cloud.

Such economic improvement that we have seen means that companies hire more and so call on the services of recruitment specialists more. But workers are also more likely to lookfor another job when times are good.

In the UK, Michael Page's biggest market, turnover grew 15 per cent and operating profits jumped 42 per cent. Here some 60 per cent of the business is in the finance and accounting area that the company is famous for and gross profit grew 11 per cent in that sector. The highest-growing sector though was, surprisingly, engineering and manufacturing.

The US business is small and the company insists it will grow this organically and expand organically there (as across the group), so it will take many years to build to something substantial. Asia Pacific, which is mostly Australia in Michael Page's case, is also doing well.

The company has a good brand name and its growth plans are sensible. But a question mark must remain over the sustainability of the economic recovery it is benefiting from, in the UK in particular. Michael Page shares are a hold at 247.5p.

African Eagle's strategy to keep to stable regions give it a good chance

Western energy and mining companies big and small have got involved in Africa's liberalising economies over the past decade. One interesting player is African Eagle Resources, which unveiled promising results yesterday from exploratory drilling at a site in Tanzania.

The company has bought licences for about a dozen projects, spread across a number of African countries. It is now trying to work out what is under the ground at these sites. A couple of projects have reached the stage where they are being developed as joint ventures with others prepared to supply the capital.

African Eagle reported that its Msasa gold project in Tanzania had shown, in a test drill, that one of the intersections had contained 241 grammes of gold, per tonne of rock in a three- metre section. That is very promising and prompted the company to draw comparisons with Barrick's Tulawaka gold mine, 15 kilometres away, which contains a high-grade 700,000-plus resources.

African Eagle reckons that the proximity of a significant deposit at a site with a similar geology means that the result is pretty exciting.

African Eagle likes to differentiate itself from the clutch of other AIM-listed miners of its size by pointing out that it operates only in relatively stable African countries and that it is involved in more than one commodity, so reducing risk. It can also boast of a better track record than many rivals. The company's shares, at 23p, are a punt but this looks like a good one.

Sail into growth with Raymarine boating kit

Raymarine designs and manufactures technological tools and devices for the leisure boating market - from 3D navigation systems to fish detectors.

Since listing in London last December, its shares have risen more than 50 per cent, and while its flotation was more costly than the group had hoped, its underlying business has gone from strength to strength in the months after.

Unveiling its first set of interim results as a publicly listed company yesterday, the group boasted a 26 per cent increase in first-half pre-tax profits on the back of an 11 per cent rise in sales. More importantly, group operating margins also rose, from 22.8 to 24 per cent.

Raymarine has been looking for ways to reduce costs, outsourcing the manufacture of its technology to Eastern Europe and Mexico, and almost halving its workforce in the process.

Having made the most out of good consumer confidence and a strong economy, the biggest question surrounding Raymarine is over the sustainability of its strong bottom line. Although the group has usually sold its technology directly to boat owners, there is an increasing trend for the latest technology to be fitted as standard in new boats. While Raymarine has been quick to adapt to this trend, already securing an important contract with the French boat manufacturer, Beneteau, this route will inevitably deliver lower margins than it currently enjoys.

Fortunately, the company is not relying solely on organic growth, and has confirmed it is looking at several acquisition opportunities. A buy at 230p.