Sage posts £350m profit

11 April 2012

Software firm Sage posted an 8 per cent rise in full-year profit, broadly as expected by the market, and said it was working hard to win sales from cautious small and medium-sized enterprises.

"There are clearly significant macro-economic concerns which may impact SMEs, particularly in the eurozone," Chief Executive Guy Berruyer said on Wednesday.

"However, the strengths of our business position us well to deal with the ups and downs of the economic cycle."

The company, which supplies accounting and other business software to more than six million SMEs, reported adjusted pretax profit of £352.6 million on 4 per cent higher revenue of £1.33 billion.

Newcastle-based Sage's customers took longer to emerge from the last economic downturn than larger corporations, and it posted organic growth in all its regions earlier this year for the first time since 2007.

In September Sage offloaded its US healthcare unit for $320 million to Vista Equity Partners, which was proving a drag on its North American operations.

The group also failed to land a deal to buy Australian software firm MYOB in the summer, although Berruyer said acquisitions remained a priority.

Sage, which competes with Intuit, increased its total dividend by 25 per cent to 9.75p a share.