Recruitment firm Michael Page has revealed it sees "numerous opportunities" for expansion after delivering a sharp rise in first-half profits.

The business said turnover from operations worldwide rose by 24.6 per cent to £312 million, while operating profits were up 47.4 per cent to £45.1 million in the six months to the end of June.

In the UK, where the company employs 1,400 people, turnover was ahead almost 20 per cent to £153.1 million, lifting operating profits by 26.5 per cent to £19.6 million.

It has offices in Birmingham where it employs 90 people, Nottingham (18) and Coventry (11).

Clients in the Midlands include Innogy, British Energy, Barclays and Blacks Leisure.

The London-based company added that the outlook for the rest of the year remained positive, with new offices planned in South Africa, Dublin and Russia.

Chairman Adrian Montague said: "The first half of the year produced record results for the group with a number of excellent performances around the world.

"We continued to invest in the business and there remain numerous opportunities for further expansion."

The profits improvement was driven by demand for permanent placements, which accounted for 75 per cent of business - up from 73 per cent a year earlier.

Chief executive Steve Ingham said: "We are in a good position to find the best people because we have a very good website with one million visits a month and receive 150,000 resumes a month that are worth registering."

As well as expansion into new cities, Mr Ingham believed existing offices were well placed to drive further improvement for the company.

He said: "The real punch to growth will come from us adding consultants to existing teams and rolling out other disciplines to existing offices."

Mr Ingham added the company had taken steps to address the disappointing performance of its Australian business, which is the largest part of the company's Asia Pacific region.

He said the company was comfortable with meeting market mean forecast of £93 million in year pretax profit on a revenue of £639 million, as it sees steady growth from the America and Europe.

It said sharp growth from permanent placements lifted its proportion of gross profit against temporary placements to 75 per cent from 73 per cent a year ago.

Mr Ingham said: "Rising global interest rates are a concern, but if you look historically at our peak profits back in 2000, we were about 80 per cent perm and 20 per cent temp.

"Naturally if the market gets concerned, particularly nervous about the economy, then our temp business would grow faster than our perm business. At the moment, our perm business continues to grow faster than temp business. So that's a positive sign."

In the UK, which accounts for about half of the group profit, gross profit rose by 20.8 per cent, while profit in continental Europe jumped by 45.6 per cent, thanks to a strong performance in France, its largest business in the region.

Asia lagged other regions, with profit growth of 14.6 per cent, as Australia produced a disappointing four per cent growth due to the implementation of a new IT system last year.

"As a consequence we have made a number of management and operational changes which will be fully implemented by the end of the third quarter. While we believe these changes will be successful, they are unlikely to have any impact in the remainder of the current year," the company said.

The company proposed an interim dividend of 1.8p per share, up 20 per cent from a year ago.

Spun off by US-based employment agency Spherion in 2001, Michael Page was hit hard by a hiring slump.

The company, which has 122 offices in 19 countries, said it planned to open new ones in South Africa, Ireland, United Arab Emirates and Russia in the second half.

Shares in Michael Page closed down 15.75p at 310p.