Sage pre-tax profits ahead of expectations

Britain's biggest accounting software firm, Sage, has said its pre-tax profit for the six months ended March 31 was ahead of expectations at £87m (€130.4m), showing growth of 17% on the same period the previous year.

Turnover for the six months was in line with expectations at £332m (€497.9m), with growth of 23% on constant exchange rates on the prior-year period.

In the UK, revenues grew 7%, in Europe they increased by 23% at constant exchange rates, and in North America revenues grew 21%.

Full details of the group's financial performance for the period will be provided in Sage's interim results announcement on May 11.

The company's Irish subsidiary, Sage Ireland, has grown from five employees to 160 since 1999.

Sage Ireland has made some acquisitions - Apex, CRL and TAS software - in Ireland which have seen it become the market leader in its field of accounting and payroll software.

Earlier this month, Sage Ireland agreed to buy the Irish company behind Coretime, an operation which provides systems allowing professional firms to manage client accounts.