Misys has announced falt profit on a reduced turnover for the first half of the 2004-05 fiscal year. Turnover from continuing opeations was £437 million against £471 million last year. The decline was attributed by the company to adverse exchange rate movements and a decline in revenues from Sesame. Opearting profit was unchanged at £17 million, and oerating margin was maintained at 10% on a like-for-like basis. The interim dividend was raised by 5% to 2.56p per share.
The Banking, Healthcare and General Insurance divisions each increased revenues and profits on a like-for-like basis. In banking, growth was attributable to order intake and order book, reflecting good progress in developing product offerings and some improvement in market conditions. In healthcare, orders were up in generally buoyant market conditions, with a strong take-up of clinical products. General insurance saw strong growth in EDI volumes. Even Sesame saw improved performance over the second half of last year, with good uptake of new product offerings.
“Our Banking, Healthcare and General Insurance businesses have all increased revenues and profits, on a like-for-like basis, compared to the prior year,” says Kevin Lomax, Executive Chairman of Misys. “Our progress reflects the actions we have taken to re-position our businesses and products, as well as some improvement in conditions in the banking market. Reported results were adversely affected by movements in exchange rates and by the decline in Sesame’s performance which we had previously indicated. The lead indicators across all our businesses are positive. We believe that Misys is well positioned to take advantage of market opportunities and our expectations for the full year have not changed.”