10th Dec 2015 07:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - Micro Focus International PLC Thursday reported a rise in pretax profit for its first half following its acquisition of The Attachmate Group Inc last November, and announced a shake-up of its board as it plans to separate its chairman and chief executive officer roles over the next one to two years.
The software company said Kevin Loosemore will continue as its executive chairman until at least April 2018, whilst Stephen Murdoch, current chief operating officer, will joint the board from the beginning of February next year as chief executive of Micro Focus. Nils Brauckmann, president and general manager of the SUSE business will be promoted to chief executive officer of SUSE at the same time.
Micro Focus acquired Attachmate for USD2.5 billion towards the end of last year, and saw a big boost in revenue as a result of the acquisition.
For the half year to end-October the company reported a pretax profit of USD98.8 million, up from USD57.1 million, as revenue nearly tripled to USD604.5 million from USD208.3 million.
On a pro-forma, constant currency basis, revenue fell to USD604.5 million from USD616.6 million. The company said it had calculated the pro-forma figures by combining internal management information for Attachmate from the beginning of May to the end of the period with the unaudited base Micro Focus results for the half year, converted at the same exchange rates as it experienced during the half year.
The company it planning to reduce revenues to a solid core from which it plans to grow in its financial year 2018, and as a result, continues to expect its revenue to decline between 2-4% for its full year on a pro-forma, constant currency basis.
It proposed an interim dividend of 16.94 cents per share, up from 15.40 cents per share.
"Our goal, which the board is confident of delivering, remains to achieve returns to shareholders of 15% - 20% per annum over the long term based on efficient execution in the mature infrastructure software market. By continuing to leverage our strong capital discipline, skill base and executing appropriate acquisitions we believe this can be achieved with modest organic revenue growth which remains our medium-term objective," said Loosemore in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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