Jan 10 Robert Walters reported a 9 percent rise in full-year gross profit on a constant currency basis and said pretax profit for the year would be slightly ahead of market expectations. The company, which places people in finance, engineering, legal and marketing jobs, reported higher quarterly gross profit, driven by growth in all its regions and said UK gross profit rose 16 percent to 23.1 million pounds in the three months ended Dec. 31. Robert Walters, which makes nearly two-thirds of its gross profit outside the UK, said in a trading statement on Tuesday that it had entered two new countries with the opening of offices in Canada and Portugal.