16th Feb 2015 07:58
LONDON (Alliance News) - Fidessa Group PLC Monday reported a fall in profit for 2014, exacerbated by the strength of its sterling reporting currency, but upped its annual dividend by 3% to 38.1 pence per share and kept its special dividend flat at 45.0 pence, while the group also said it expects a gradual increase in its growth rate in 2015.
In a statement, Fidessa said pretax profit, adjusted for acquired intangibles amortisation and gain on property sales in 2014, was down 4.8% at GBP39.8 million in 2014. Revenue was 1.4% lower at GBP275.0 million. However, both adjusted pretax profit and revenue were up 3% at constant currencies.
Statutory pretax profit was down 9.3% at GBP39.1 million on a reported basis, but just 2% at constant currencies.
Chief Executive Chris Aspinwall said the group made progress in 2014 against a backdrop of slowly improving market conditions, which contributed to the constant currency growth.
"As expected, the improving market conditions meant we saw a reduction in the headwind we have been suffering in recent years from consolidations, restructurings and closures in our customer base," Aspinwall said in a statement.
According to the chief executive, the improving conditions allowed some of the growth being generated through sales of the group's derivatives platforms, service-based platforms and regional expansion to flow through into overall growth rather than being masked by the decline in equities.
Aspinwall also said that he believes the strength of sterling, which more than offset constant currencies growth in revenue and adjusted pretax profit, is a "transient" matter that he doesn't expect to continue into 2015.
In a discussion of current trading, Aspinwall said he expects continued gradual improvement in market conditions, while noting that there are still systemic risks and pressures that deserve attention.
"We expect that we will see a gradual increase in our growth rate from the level achieved in 2014 and this is supported by the current sales pipeline. As new opportunities open up, it is likely that some additional investment will be required and this will need to be carefully managed throughout the year," Aspinwall said.
"Looking further ahead, we believe that stability and opportunity will increasingly return to the markets and as our multi-asset initiative gains further momentum, we will see growth levels returning closer to those we have seen in the past," the chief executive added.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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