Shares in FTSE 250 software group Micro Focus International (LON:MCRO) took a tumble this morning on news that CFO Nick Bray was quitting the group and looks set to join a competitor. His decision took the sheen off a robust set of full year results from Micro Focus, which saw revenues grow by 57% to $432.6m and adjusted pre-tax profits rise by 39% to $160.9m. Shares in the company fell by 11.5% to 467p during the morning.
Micro Focus specialises in innovative software that allows companies to improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Reporting on the year to April 30, the company said its final proposed dividend was 16.2 cents per share, taking its total proposed dividend for the year to 21.8 cents per share, up 40% on 2009.
Nigel Clifford, the company’s chief executive, said: “Micro Focus has delivered another year of growth against a difficult economic backdrop whilst significantly expanding to address a $6.4 billion market opportunity as a result of the acquisitions of Borland and the Automated Management & Quality business of Compuware in the summer of last year. Now integrated within the group, these businesses have provided us with greater opportunities for further growth in the future.”
Mr Clifford said the group was encouraged by the accelerated growth in its application Modernization & Migration revenues, which now represent approximately 20% of group revenues. More than half of group revenues are now derived from the faster growing AMQ and Modernization & Migration markets. He said growth going forward would be supported by an operational focus on improving sales productivity and developing the organisation for scale.
He added: “Current trading is in line with management expectations. Micro Focus' relevance, resilience and strong cash generation gives the board confidence in the group's ability to continue to deliver superior total shareholder returns going forward. In the short term the group expects to deliver mid single digit organic revenue growth with the ambition of returning to double digit growth over the medium term, while maintaining adjusted EBITDA margins at approximately 40%.”
Thursday, Jun 24 2010 by Stockopedia News. It's too out of date. No mention of the Hewlett Packard reverse takeover. Disappointing
