Archived article
Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
Enterprise software company Micro Focus International said it posted better-than-expected sales and margins in the first half, citing a strong licence revenue performance and cost cutting.
Revenue for the six months through April was now expected to fall by 5% on a constant currency basis to around $1.4 billion, which, although lower, was ahead of market expectations.
An expected adjusted operating margin of about 36% also was ahead of market expectations, the company said.
Micro Focus added that sales execution in the period was strong, resulting in an improvement in sales conversion rates and a number of deals closing earlier than expected.
'The group continues to target a meaningful improvement in the rate of constant currency revenue decline in the 2021 financial year when compared to the 2020 financial year, in line with current revenue consensus,' it said.
Cash at 30 April was $0.7 billion and net debt $4.1 billion.
'We are pleased with a period of further solid progress in most areas of our business,' chief executive Stephen Murdoch said.
'The product investments and operational changes we are making are beginning to deliver performance improvements, and our value propositions are resonating with customers and partners, as demonstrated by the signing of the significant, long term commercial agreement with AWS.'
'Our recovery programme and specifically our systems transformation is progressing as planned despite the challenges of executing this within the constraints of a global lockdown.'