19th Mar 2019 11:14
LONDON (Alliance News) - Education software company Tribal Group PLC on Tuesday reported a rise in annual profit, despite its revenue falling.
Tribal's revenue fell 1.1% to GBP80.1 million for 2018, though revenue did rise 5.6% to GBP38.5 million.
The revenue decline, Tribal said, is due to the expiry of its Early Years contract with UK schools regulator Ofsted, as well as an accounting standard change.
Pretax profit was GBP4.8 million, from GBP3.4 million the year before, a rise of 41%. Tribal booked a GBP380,000 gain on the settlement of defined benefit schemes, while finance costs also fell.
The company is paying a dividend of 1.1 pence for 2018, from 1.0p in 2017. This comes as one final payout, with no interim dividend.
"I am pleased with the improved profit performance for the year and the addition of significant new customers in Higher Education and Further Education following competitive tenders. Margin has improved and we continue to challenge costs across the business," said Chief Executive Mark Pickett, whose appointment as permanent CEO was announced Monday after being acting boss from last September.
"The group continues to deliver against its strategic goals of improving profitability, supporting customers in their move to the cloud and delivering the next generation information system to new and existing customers."
In the UK, Tribal said activity levels for replacing student information systems was stable, with contract win rates strong in both Higher and Further Education.
Tribal also did well in Australia, though outside of Higher Education the environment was more difficult.
In Dubai, Tribal won a private school review contract, while it also secured a contract extension in the US.
Looking forward, CEO Pickett said: "We have started 2019 well with significant wins in the Further Education and Work-based learning sectors and look forward to continued momentum across the year and into the future."
There is a good pipeline of work in the UK, Tribal said, while Higher Education is set to remain strong in Asia-Pacific and there are a number of opportunities in the Middle East and US.
Shares were down 1.1% on Tuesday morning at a price of 70.05 pence each.
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