Shares in Portrait Software plunged after the UK CRM vendor posted lower full year profit and said its business had been hit by "the turbulence in the investment banking sector".
Portrait shares fell 12.5%, or 1.75 pence, to 12.25 pence in afternoon trading after the vendor said its Impendium unit - which provides operational processing applications to capital markets, investment management and treasury firms - had suffered in the economic climate.
"The turbulence in the investment banking sector last year clearly affected Impendium's ability to close deals in its target market," says the company in a statement accompanying its full year financial results.
For the year to March 31, Portrait is reporting pre-tax profit of £381,000, down from £492,000 for the previous 12 months. Revenue was also down from £14.4 million in 2007 to £14.1 million.
Portrait says revenues at its UK services business also took a hit after a project was held up due to a "customer's internal changes".
The company is now "reducing our reliance on unpredictable large enterprise projects in the UK financial services sector that were once the company's core business."
However, Portrait says it is starting to benefit from a focus on developing a higher margins software applications business and growing its international operations.
Licence revenue increased by 15% to £3.9 million, up from £3.4 million in 2007. International revenue outside Europe increased 37% to £6.7 million - and now represents 47% of all sales, up from 34% in 2007.
Portrait says it is now better placed to generate growth "associated with a more predictable business model based around software applications sales".
Looking ahead, Nick Randall, chief executive of Portrait says: "Despite tough market conditions, we believe Portrait is now poised to achieve growth in both sales and profitability this current year and beyond. Compared to this time last year, we are now a more focused, applications based business addressing market sectors where most leading analysts continue to project strong growth."
The vendor also revealed today non-executive directors Neil Pearce and Rob Stavis have retired from the board.
You can view Portrait Software share data here