26th May 2016 06:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Security software firm Sophos Group PLC Thursday said it had seen a strong performance in its first year as a publicly listed company, as it reported a widened loss for the year.
For the financial year to end-March, Sophos reported a pretax loss of USD68.4 million, widened from a pretax loss of USD54.3 million the previous year, as a rise in revenue to USD478.2 million from USD446.7 million was offset by higher operating costs and exceptional expenses related to the company's initial public offering last July.
Additionally, Sophos recorded one-off litigation costs of USD19.8 million related to settling an intellectual property lawsuit with Fortinet Inc.
Sophos said its billings, which represent the value of products and services invoiced to customers after receiving a purchase order from the customer and delivering the products and services to them, on a like-for-like basis grew nearly 20%.
Sophos defines its like-for-like as being on a constant currency basis, stripping out disposals and including acquisitions.
For the year ahead, the company expects to deliver like-for-like billings growth in the mid teens, as well as a modest cash earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin expansion.
It proposed a final dividend of 1.1 cents, taking its total dividend for the year to 1.8 cents.
"We are pleased with our strong performance during our first year as a public company. The year has been marked by sustained strength across all major regions and product categories, with our financial and operational performance exceeding the board's expectations set at the start of the year and at the upper-end of our revised outlook," said Chief Executive Officer Kris Hagerman in a statement.
"Our leading product portfolio, innovation to drive our strategy of synchronized security, commitment to 'security made simple' and 'channel first' sales strategy enabled us to grow our billings and revenue across both new and existing customers," Hagerman added.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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