A major US IT recruiter has instructed a UK corporate finance company to identify potential acquisition targets among UK IT recruiters.

Mike Higgins, a partner and specialist in the recruitment sector at Fusion Corporate Finance, told Recruiter that the US client was “a major player in the States that wished to be supported round the world from a single source of supply”.

Higgins said that the US recruiter was looking at an acquisition in the second half of 2009. However, he predicted that this would be the first of a growing number of others.

He said he also expected Kelly Services to make strategic acquisitions in the UK next year, with small professional services recruiters being the likely targets.

Kelly Services recently acquired niche accountancy recruiter Toner Graham.

Higgins said that US interest in acquiring UK recruiters had been heightened because it was now a buyer’s market, with UK company valuations falling by about a third. Higgins added that the appreciation of the US dollar gave US acquirers who wished to move now “a clear price advantage”.

Higgins said that UK IT recruiters were likely targets because IT was a “mission-critical” function that enabled companies to make cost vital cost savings in their businesses. Healthcare was another sector likely to be targeted, he said.

Peter Searle, chief executive of Spring Group, admitted that his company was “an obvious target” for US recruiters. However, he said that “lucky for us” US recruiters were not in a position to buy UK recruiters at the moment because they [US recruiters] had large amounts of debt and didn’t have access to funds.

However, Searle added that one scenario that could lead to US acquisitions of UK recruiters would be if the US economy recovered from the economic downturn before the UK. A real buying opportunity would emerge for US buyers if US share prices rose before those of UK shares, he said.

Searle said that despite this he felt protected from a US acquisition because 70% of Spring’s shares were held by four institutions and they would need to be persuaded to sell first.