AVEVA boosts full-year profit, gives confident outlook

27th May 2014 07:41

- Full-year profit rises 11 per cent- Strong growth at Engineering and Design Systems unit- Confident in future tradingSoftware maker AVEVA revealed an 11 per cent increase in full-year profit underpinned by strong demand at its Engineering and Design Systems unit and improved margins. The Cambridge-based supplier of engineering data and design IT systems, said pre-tax profit rose 9% to £69.0m for the year ended March 31st 2014. Adjusted pre-tax profit climbed 11% to £78.3m. Revenue at the group, whose software is used to design power plants, shipping and energy facilities, rose 8% to a record £237.3m. Adjusted profit margin rose to 33.0% from 32.1% a year earlier.AVEVA, whose customers include KBR, Jacobs Engineering, Foster Wheeler, Worley Parsons, Siemens Energy and Shell, said basic earnings per share increased 17% to 78.12p."It has been a year in which we have seen mixed economic situations in many of the regions in which we operate around the world. However, the broad spread of our business has enabled us to deliver good growth," the group said. Commenting on the outlook, Chief Executive Richard Longdon said: "The broad international spread of our business, combined with robust underlying market drivers, has once again proved effective in enabling us to deliver strong underlying growth and an improvement in profit margin, despite varied economic conditions." "It has been a year of significant progress on a number of fronts [...] With strong long term market drivers and a broadening product footprint we are confident in our ability to deliver further progress against our growth plans in the future," AVEVA added.The board is recommending a final dividend of 22p, an increase of 13% over the prior year. CJ