10th Nov 2015 08:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - AVEVA Group PLC on Tuesday said that it hopes to reach definitive terms over the acquisition of industrial software assets from Schneider Electric SE in December, with completion expected by mid-2016, as it swung to an interim pretax loss.
Back in July AVEVA and Schneider said they had reached a non-binding agreement on the key terms and conditions of a deal for the industrial software assets. The companies are currently working towards finalising due diligence on the deal.
"Both parties remain convinced of [the deal's] merits and the key strategic and financial benefits that it will bring, including a more widely diversified product set, significant scale in North America, a generally more diverse regional and end market exposure, a significant presence amongst owner operator customers and enhanced shareholder returns," AVEVA said in a statement.
The update on the deal came as AVEVA said it swung to a pretax loss of GBP773,000 in the six months to September 30 from a GBP14.2 million pretax profit in the corresponding half the prior year. AVEVA increased its interim dividend per share to 6.0 pence from 5.5p.
Revenue fell to GBP82.0 million in the half from GBP85.9 million, while operating expenses swelled to GBP75.8 million from GBP64.5 million due to higher expenses associated with research and development as well as selling and administration.
AVEVA Chief Executive Richard Longdon said he was pleased with the company's "resilient performance" in the first half, particularly as organic constant currency recurring revenue rose by 4% to GBP64.3 million. Longdon cited also a "general strengthening" of AVEVA's pipeline.
"We are confident in our technology leadership as well as the long-term structural growth drivers that underpin the markets we serve and, in the current fiscal year, we expect to achieve a result in line with the board's expectations," Longdon said in a statement.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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