Marlborough Stirling, a provider of packaged software and services to the mortgage, life, pensions and investment market sectors, has reported solid results for the year ended 31 December 2001, with pre-tax profit up 11 per cent to £9.3 million, and turnover before acquisitions of £63.8 million, giving organic growth of 30 per cent.
Commenting on the results, Graham Coxell, chief executive says: "The year was probably the most exciting in the company's history with a number of significant landmarks."
The company, which floated on the London Stock Exchange in April 2001, signed its largest ever contract - a Lamda implementation for AXA Sun Life expected to be worth £35 million over 4 years - and completed the acquisition of IFA portal operator Exchange FS during 2001. Marlborough Stirling says integration of the latter is progressing well, with annual cost savings identified of £3.5 million, ahead of original expectations.
The company also reports good visibility for 2002, marked at the beginning of the year by the signing of an outsourcing contract with Sun Life Financial of Canada expected to be worth at least £95 million over 5 years.
Coxell says the company is in the early stages of a number of product initiatives with potentially significant implications for the business in the future. These include the development of back office admin product Lamda into more components to meet specific niche requirements, and the customisation of the product range to cater for international demands. The proportion of turnover generated from the vendor's home market rose significantly in the year, to 87% from 76% in 2000.
The company is also working to enhance the Exchange portal to provide greater support for straight through processing and back office integration and to create a complete end-to-end solution for product distribution and administration.