Electronic Data maintains divi as profits dive

27th Nov 2009 14:12

Pre-tax profit more than halved at IT solutions provider Electronic Data Processing, slumping to £0.46m in the half year to 30 September, from £1.07m the year before.Turnover tumbled to £5.84m from £6.85m, but the company drew comfort from contracted recurring software revenues were unchanged in absolute returns. The reduction in non-recurring revenues was attributed by the company to customers deferring decisions on discretionary information technology expenditure. 'Whilst there are some initial signs of increased activity levels in the markets in which we are involved, these have not yet translated into increased levels of orders,' said Michael Heller, chairman of Electronic Data Processing. 'We do not expect trading levels to significantly improve until the economy generally shows signs of sustainable improvement,' Heller added.The final dividend has been maintained at 2p per share, making the full year dividend 2.713p, the same as last year (excluding the 5p special dividend).