First Derivatives posts 10% pre-tax profit rise

Northern Ireland software firm First Derivatives posted a 10% increase in pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of August.

Pre-tax for the March-August period was £3.8m (€4.7m) against £3.5m for the corresponding six months in 2011. Turnover was up 23.3% to £27.6m. Operating profit increased by 14.2% to £4.1m.

“The first six months have seen continued strong growth across the group’s activities with total revenues up over 23%. To fuel this growth we have continued to make substantial investment in the development of all the group’s activities to ensure we have a strong organisation that can react to the market through the quality of our product and service offerings,” said First Derivatives’ chairman David Anderson.

Sales in the software division were up 7.2% to £7.5m. Transactional and recurring revenues were up 40.8% on 2011, although there was a 16.9% drop in one off licence fee income and a 60.7% decrease in legacy technology income.

“We have achieved a number of contract wins for our flagship products including sales of Delta Stream and Delta Algo to some of the world’s largest banks and exchanges,” the company said.

Consulting revenues were up 30.7% to £20m, with growth seen across its existing client base as well as the addition of a number of new clients.

In September, it announced the acquisitions of Cowrie Financial, and Redshift Horizons. “These acquisitions continue our strategy in developing strategic vendor services focused on our target market segment,” the company said.