27th May 2014 07:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - AVEVA Group PLC Tuesday upped its total dividend and expressed confidence in achieving its targets for further growth, as it saw pretax profit rise in the year to end-March.
The engineering software and services proposed a total dividend of 27.0 pence, up 13% from 24 pence in the previous year. The company also paid a special dividend of 147 pence per share to shareholders in August 2013.
It posted a pretax profit of GBP69.0 million, up from GBP63.5 million, as revenue rose to GBP237.3 million from GBP220.2 million, boosted by growth in its three-dimensional design platform AVEVA Everything 3D, and a strong performance in its Engineering and Design Systems division.
Engineering and Design Systems saw revenue rise 12%, driven by a contract wins in South Korea where a shipyard bought up further licences for oil and gas projects.
The company said it is continuing to invest in new software and developing its existing portfolio within the division, launching tablet software AVEVA E3D Insight, upgrading its AVEVA PDMS software and integrating its AVEVA Bocad software into its 3D design tools.
AVEVA's Enterprise Solutions division was hit by longer sales cycles and customer losses in the first half, it said, leading the division to post a full-year loss. Enterprise Solutions revenues fell 16%, hampered by a Latin American shipyard customer hitting financial difficulties, and an oil and gas operator abandoning its roll-out plans.
The division's weaker performance also hit its revenue backlog; which stood at GBP10.7 million as at March 31, compared to GBP11.4 million at September 30, 2013.
The company said that whilst the division's results had been disappointing, Enterprise Solutions' pipeline remained strong. It expressed optimism that the division would contribute positively in the new financial year, and said it would focus more on its sales force during 2014/15.
AVEVA was hit by a GBP7.1 million reduction in revenue during the second half of the year due to the strengthening of sterling against the Brazilian real, the Australian dollar, Japanese yen and Russian rouble, offsetting a translation gain of GBP2.3 million in its first half.
"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," said Chairman Philip Aiken in a statement.
Shares in AVEVA were trading up 5.3% shortly after market open Tuesday at 2,275.00 pence.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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