5th May 2016 07:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Sage Group PLC said Thursday it has agreed to buy a 20.7% stake in Fairsail Ltd for GBP10 million, as it reported a fall in pretax profit for its first half.
Sage reported a pretax profit of GBP142.1 million for the half year to end-March, down from GBP177.6 million, as a rise in revenue to GBP746.6 million from GBP717.3 million was offset by GBP31 million in one-off costs related to the company's business transformation strategy, it said.
Sage said it remains on target to achieve its expected savings of GBP50 million from its restructuring plan by the end of the year, with a target payback of under two years.
Fairsail is a privately owned software developer, and as Chief Executive Officer Stephen Kelly was a minority shareholder in Fairsail until recently, the acquisition of the 20.7% stake is considered a related-party transaction.
"We are pleased with the early progress made and recognise there is still much to do in the transformation. We remain confident in achieving our full-year targets of at least 6% organic revenue growth and organic operating margin of 27%," said Kelly in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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