First Derivatives plc (LON:FDP), a provider of investment and derivatives technology, has earlier today published its report for the six months to August 31, 2015.
In tune with upbeat forecasts, the company registered a strong set of performance metrics, including a steep rise in revenues and profits.
Revenue increased by 44% year on year to £53.8 million ($81.3m), of which 27% was organic and the remainder attributable to the strategic acquisitions made during the past year. Software revenue surged 87% to £18.3 million, whereas consulting revenue increased by 28% to £35.5 million.
The Group’s EBITDA margin widened to 20.0% for the period (H1 2015: 16.6%) , with the main driver being the greater proportion of higher margin software sales achieved in the period against consulting sales.
Reported profit for the period was £3.48 million, up 18.5% from the corresponding period a year earlier.
The Group continued to invest in R&D to maintain its technology lead and to enable the deployment of its software on devices, across the enterprise and in Cloud/SaaS environments. R&D capitalisation was £3.7m (H1 2015: £3.0m) with amortisation of our capitalised software £1.8m, up from £1.3m a year ago.
Within the capital markets sector, market conditions remained healthy, on the back complex and widespread regulatory change, which requires the use of new technology. Outside capital markets, the company is establishing a pipeline of opportunities across a number of markets. Within digital marketing and utilities, its activities have been bolstered by the acquisitions of Prelytix and Affinity Systems.
The company also highlighted the formation of FD Labs as an important event after the reporting period.
Seamus Keating, Chairman of FD, commented:
“This was another period of strong progress across the Group. Our consulting division delivered revenue growth of 28% and during the period a number of initiatives laid the foundations for FD to continue our remarkable track record of more than 20% per annum growth in consulting revenue. Although we remain at an early stage of full commercialisation of our software products we are pleased to report an impressive 87% growth in software revenue as we continued to penetrate our key target markets in the period.
“The positive performance in the first half of our financial year has continued into the second half and the high visibility within both consulting and software gives the Board confidence that the Group expects to meet market expectations for the full year. We will continue to invest to position ourselves to benefit from our software’s technology lead, to build upon this and look to convert our pipeline of opportunities within capital markets and other sectors. We continue to believe the work and investments we have made, along with our market positioning in both consulting and software, provide a strong platform to meet our exciting growth ambitions.”
You can view the full report by clicking here.