Software firm’s revenue up 50%

Specialist software group Escher has posted a 17% annualised jump in first-half adjusted pre-tax profit and a near 50% rise in revenue.

The Boston-headquartered group — which also counts Dublin among a handful of international operational bases — said yesterday that adjusted pre-tax profits, for the first six months of 2013, amounted to $1.35m (€1.02m), up by 17% on the same period last year. Before being adjusted to exclude share-based payments, the company’sfirst-half pre-tax profits were down from $1.15m to $1.08m.

Escher specialises in point-of-sale e-commerce software solutions for leading international postal agents.

One of its clients is An Post, with whom the group recently signed a seven-year partnership extension. Its products basically help An Post to widen its product offering to include items like pre-paid currency cards and an iTunes card.

New and renewed contracts — with the likes of An Post, Israel Post and Norway’s postal services, Posten Norge — have driven Escher’s business this year and, as flagged in its July trading update, first half revenue was up by 48%, year-on-year, to $12.87m. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 27% to $2.39m, with adjusted diluted earnings per share rising by 19% to 5.4c.

Management said its forecasts for the full year remain dependent on the partial use of its Riposte product by the US Postal Service; from which the firm will receive “significant” licensing revenues. It said progress talks with the USPS are continuing, but that roll-out should begin later this year.