(Sharecast News) - Elecosoft on Tuesday reported a 34% jump in interim profit after a double-digit increase in revenue, as the company said it remained resilient despite weakness in the construction and retail sectors.
Profit before tax climbed to £1.6m for the six months ended 30 June, as revenue rose by 20% to £12.7m following the release of Powerproject XV, the company's newest version of its project management software.

Elecosoft, which provides software to the architectural, engineering, construction and digital marketing industries, boosted its interim dividend by 7% to 0.30p.

Net bank debt was slashed from £1.8m to £0.2m as the AIM- listed company said it worked hard to secure its "already strong" financial position in the first half of the year.

The group said it had remained resilient despite the construction and retail sectors suffering due to prevailing uncertainties and macro-economic weaknesses, which resulted in some delays and hesitation in orders over the period.

John Ketteley, executive chairman of Elecosoft, said: "We have experienced some slowing of the momentum in some of our markets but we continue to experience increasing acceptance of our software and services outside the EU and the UK and this is encouraging.

"Much of our software is aimed at delivering ease of use and efficiencies to our customers, to enable them to reduce their own and their customers' costs in difficult markets."

Elecosoft shares were down 4.43% at 75.50p at 1050 BST.