PREVIEW-Randstad margins, outlook in focus at Q1 results

* Q1 results Friday, April 24, 0530 GMT

* Net loss seen at 36 million euros

* Eyes on margins and outlook

By Harro ten Wolde

AMSTERDAM, April 23 (Reuters) - Randstad NV (RAND.AS) is expected to post a second consecutive quarterly loss on Friday, when investors in the Dutch staffing company will be looking at margin management and the outlook.

The average forecast for the first-quarter net loss was 36 million euros ($47 million) in a Reuters survey of seven analysts, with individual estimates ranging from a 23-68 million loss. [ID:nLH303523]

Randstad will give restated numbers for the first quarter of 2008 to reflect its 3.2 billion euro acquisition of Dutch rival Vedior last year. It posted a 231 million euro net loss for the fourth quarter of 2008, hit by a 500 million goodwill impairment on the acquisition.

In February, the world's second-largest jobs company by sales said its margin target was at risk if the current market would persist. [ID:nLQ810885]

Randstad targets an annualised 4 percent margin on earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) in a normal downturn. "Obviously this is a far from normal downturn," finance director Robert-Jan van de Kraats said in February.

EARLY CYCLE COMPANY

Cost-cutting will be a focus.

Randstad announced in January it would cut 489 jobs in France, generating 25 million euros in savings, and, in February, said it planned further restructuring measures without saying how many additional jobs might be cut.

On Tuesday, USG People (USGP.AS), the Netherlands' second staffing company, said it saw a slowdown in the contraction of the economy in the United States and China, where it expects the first signs of recovery.

"As an early cycle staffing company (Randstad) would recover four months ahead of the trough ... at the beginning of the second quarter," ING analyst Marc Zwartsenburg said in a note.

Earlier this month, British recruiter Michael Page (MPI.L) reported a sharp decline in first-quarter profit and said it did not expect business to pick up anytime soon.