The Sage Group plc (“Sage”), a leading supplier of accounting and business management software solutions and related services for small to medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”), announces its unaudited results for the year ended 30 September 2004.
Financial highlights
- Turnover increased by 29% to £687.6m (2003: £533.2m)
- Pre-tax profit increased 20% to £181.1m (2003: £151.0m)
- Earnings per share up 21% to 9.90p (2003: 8.16p)
- Operating cash flow up 21% to £221.8m (2003: £183.8m)
- Proposed dividend raised 41% to 2.33p per share (2003: 1.65p) following a review of our divided policy
Operational and strategic highlights
- Expanded portfolio of software and services generated organic revenue growth of 6%
- Improved organic revenue growth in the second half of the year in each region
- Acquisitions of Softline, SP and ACCPAC established significant presence in South Africa, Australia, Spain, Canada and South-East Asia
- 269,000 new customers, in addition to 903,000 customers added with acquired businesses, bringing the customer base to 4.4m businesses (2003: 3.2m), excluding CRM customers
- Significantly increased operating margins in new acquisitions
Chairman, Michael Jackson, commented: “These results show improved organic revenue growth compared to recent reporting periods. They demonstrate the value of our key asset, our large and growing customer base of 4.4 million SMEs, to which we are successfully selling our extensive range of products and services. Our recent significant acquisitions made strong early contributions with integration into the Group proceeding swiftly and effectively.
The Board has reviewed its dividend policy in light of the highly cash generative nature of the Group. It has decided to progressively increase the dividend so as to achieve a dividend cover of 3.5 times within two to three years. Dividend cover for 2004 is 4.25 times.
Our focus in 2005 will be on growing our customer base, continuing to improve our products and services and developing our recently acquired businesses. We will continue to seek acquisition opportunities which strengthen our market position and meet our investment criteria. The start to the new financial year has been encouraging and we view 2005 with confidence.”
