Fidessa posts strong six month results

• Revenue up 11% with 81% recurring.
• Strong progress in Asia and first substantial sale into Middle East market.
• Adjusted operating profit up 24% on higher margin.
• Cash of £39.8m after payment of £14.2m special dividend.
• Customer numbers, user numbers and transaction volumes continuing to grow.

Commenting on these results, Chris Aspinwall, Chief Executive, said: "Fidessa has delivered good growth for the first half of 2010 with progress across all regions, despite the uncertainty remaining within the financial markets. This has included a strong performance from our business in Asia and our first substantial deal in the Middle East region. Whilst the markets have been more stable during the first half of 2010, there is still significant uncertainty with regard to both the macroeconomic environment and the impact of regulation on the market. In some areas this uncertainty is creating opportunities, where the breadth of the Fidessa product set gives our customers the flexibility to respond rapidly to changing market conditions and makes Fidessa a key strategic partner across their business. However, there are also areas, particularly within smaller firms, where the uncertainty is causing them to delay before committing resources to develop their business. It is mainly within these smaller firms that we are also seeing a level of consolidation and restructuring, which has continued at similar levels to that which we saw in the second half of 2009 and we expect it will continue to be a feature of the market for some time. Overall, our ability to help our customers take advantage of new business opportunities, whilst also helping them to control their costs, has enabled us to deliver good growth for the first half. The strength of our business has been reflected in a number of key metrics, including an increase of over 20% in the volume of transactions going through our network, and has also been reflected in our cash balance which has reached £39.8 million (£25.0 million at 30th June 2009) after paying a special dividend of 40 pence per share (£14.2 million)."

Commenting on current trading, Chris Aspinwall, continued: "Looking ahead, we believe the market will remain difficult to predict for some time to come and it is unlikely that we will know the true nature of the economic situation, or of prospective government regulation, during this year. Despite this, we are confident that we can deliver good growth for 2010 as a whole although, as previously stated, we do not believe that the overall rate of growth will be as high as that seen during 2009. Due to the current difficulty in predicting the market, we are continuing to adopt a more cautious approach and are maintaining a higher level of cost control to provide an additional level of contingency.

Looking further ahead, we believe that Fidessa will continue to play an important role in providing the solutions the industry needs at all levels within the community. We expect that as the markets develop, this will result in further significant growth opportunities and we will maintain our strategy of investment in the business to bring the right solutions to our customers across all the regions in which we operate."

Read the full statement here: