First Derivatives sees profits rise 15%

NEWRY-BASED specialist technology firm First Derivatives has forecast continued growth in its current year, after seeing profits rise by just over 15% last year.

The company, which provides software support services to investment banks and hedge fund administrators, saw its pre-tax profits rise from £5.64m (€6.52m) to £6.5m (€7.52m) in the 12 months to the end of February.

Revenue rose by 44.2% to £36.7m, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rising by over 18% to £8.6m and earnings per share up by 12.4% to 29p.

The company has also declared a final dividend of 7.25p per share, which, together with the interim dividend of 2.9p, amounts to a total dividend of 10.15p for the year.

Yesterday’s results showed a strong performance across all divisions of the company — software sales were up 104% to £12.51m and consultancy sales rose 25.2% to £24.3m.

Chairman David Anderson said: “We continue to have a strong pipeline of prospects and are pleased with how the group is now positioned to further penetrate its target market. We’ve made a strong start to the current year and expect to be able to report further progress in the year to February 2012.”

He said the firm is continuing to make “a substantial investment” in the development of its activities, “as we build a robust organisation with a strong asset base for growth”.

Employment at the company has increased from 385 to 524 over the course of its latest financial year.

First Derivatives has also secured a £4.3m commitment from Invest NI — the North’s regional economic development agency — for the creation of a further 359 new jobs over the course of the next three years. To date, 40 of these have already come on stream.

The Newry firm is also set to continue with its expansion strategy of a mix of organic and acquisition-led growth, having fully integrated all recent acquisitions.