Manpower Names Becky Frankiewicz CEO, Says She Is 'Fully Committed' To Cost Plan
Jonas Prising becomes executive chair January 1, 2027, and analysts pressed his successor on the April transformation plan.
ManpowerGroup Chair and CEO Jonas Prising said on the staffing firm's third-quarter earnings call Thursday that President and Chief Strategy Officer Becky Frankiewicz will become CEO and join the board effective January 1, 2027. Prising moves to executive chair at that point, and a Baird analyst used the Q&A to ask whether the April cost-cutting plan survives the handoff.
What was said on the call
Prising described the change as part of the board's long-term succession planning, reflecting "building world-class talent from within." He said he will speak to investors on "my last earnings call in January 2027."
The Baird analyst asked whether anything had changed in the plan laid out in April, and put a figure to it: "the 110 basis points of margin improvement." A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point, so that is 1.1 points. The analyst, not the company, introduced the number. Frankiewicz answered: "Fully committed."
She said she was "part of the architect" of the cost-savings commitment and wants to "go faster and deeper," citing speed to market, better insights and a lower cost structure.
Prising reiterated the company's commitment to $200 million in permanent cost savings in 2028. Frankiewicz said the front-office program, running in the US, is now extending to the UK, and CFO Jack McGinnis repeated that.
The quarter and the guidance
Prising said reported revenue was $4.8 billion, up 6% organically in constant currency; McGinnis put constant-currency growth at 5%. Adjusted EBITDA was $107 million, a margin of 2.2%, up 10 basis points from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.01 and reported EPS was 71 cents.
For the fourth quarter, McGinnis guided to EPS of $1.03 to $1.13, excluding restructuring and transformation program costs. He guided to EBITDA margin up 20 basis points year over year at the midpoint.
Free cash flow was an outflow of $17 million, against an inflow of $45 million a year earlier, which McGinnis tied to the timing of managed-service payments. Excluding those, he said it would have been an inflow of $75 million.
What to watch
On buybacks, McGinnis said the priority is strengthening the balance sheet, no shares were repurchased last quarter, and he would not expect any in the "very immediate future." He said the topic could come up again "in not too distant future."
Market data showed shares down 13.18% at $45.11 on Thursday, versus a prior close of $51.96.
Prising's January 2027 call is the next dated event; it will be his last as CEO and the first quarterly report under the new setup.
Sources
- Manpower's sales miss, CEO transition overshadows Q3 results (MAN:NYSE) | Seeking Alpha — seekingalpha.com
- Manpower: Q3 Earnings Snapshot – WTOP News — wtop.com
- ManpowerGroup Announces Leadership Transition – Company Announcement - FT.com — Financial Times
- 7% Undervalued ManpowerGroup (MAN) As Q3 Earnings Expectations Build — Yahoo Finance
- UBS Maintains Neutral on ManpowerGroup, Raise... — benzinga.com
