Sage posts strong second-quarter figures

SHARES IN SAGE leaped 8.36% yesterday after the Newcastle-based software group posted a 6.5% increase in revenue in the six months to 31 March, up to £699m from £657m in the same period last year.

Profit before tax is up 4.9% from £165m to £173m, while the number of software subscriptions breached 550,000.

Sage One, its cloud-based system, saw subscriptions hit 115,000, up from 86,000 in December last year.

Despite such boosts, chief executive Stephen Kelly (pictured) said Sage “enjoyed a number of benefits in the second quarter which, though encouraging, are unlikely to recur in the second half, and so our expectations for the current year remain unchanged”.

He said: “We have already started making changes to facilitate and underpin our longer-term growth plans. These changes are being carefully introduced to ensure minimum risk to the business. These include organisational and product improvements which will help drive sustainable, profitable growth and build on Sage’s existing strengths. We are at the start of this journey which will take a couple of years to fully implement.”