Profit surges at Micro Focus

8th Dec 2010 07:33

Business software maker Micro Focus posted a sharp increase in half year profit and said company expectations for the full year remain unchanged.The group, which provides software solutions to manage and update existing applications for clients such as supermarket chain Tesco, said pre-tax profit jumped to $63.2m in the half year to 31 October 2010 from $38.8m the year before. Total Group revenue was up 8.7% to $215.6m. Micro Focus is anticipating that revenues in the current year will be broadly in line with last year's pro-forma constant currency figure of $453m. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be broadly similar to market expectations at the time of the pre-close trading update of $179m. This would produce an adjusted EBITDA margin of 39.5% which is in line with the group's medium term target of 40%, the group explained. However Micro warned the challenging macro-economic environment could have a material impact on the group's performance over the remaining six months of the financial year and could cause results to differ materially from expected and historic results. Net debt fell to $40.4m during the period from $104.1m in 2009. The interim dividend has been increased by 28.6% to 7.2 cents per share.The group added that it remained alert to appropriate acquisitions.