Sunshine Reflecting on a Skyscraper - KX

Interim Results Announced

5 November 2019

FD (AIM: FDP.L, Euronext Growth: FDP.I) today announces its results for the six months ended 31 August 2019.

Financial Highlights

Six months to 31st August	2019	2018	Change
Revenue	£116.7m	£105.6m	+11%
Gross profit	£48.0m	£43.9m	+9%
Adjusted EBITDA*	£22.0m	£18.1m	+22%
Profit before tax	£8.4m	£7.6m	+12%
Reported diluted EPS	24.2p	21.7p	+11%
Interim dividend per share	8.5p	7.7p	+10%
Net debt **	£60.2m	£24.2m

*Adjusted for share-based payments and acquisition costs; H1 2020 adjusted EBITDA (excluding impact of IFRS 16): £20.2m (+12%)

**Excluding lease obligations under IFRS 16

Business Highlights

Software revenue up 13% to £71.4m (H1 2019: £63.1m), driven by 19% growth in recurring software license revenue.
Multiple contract wins across both software and managed services and consulting providing confidence in our outlook, including notable deals signed with a major Japanese bank for the global roll-out of a next generation e-FX platform built on KX and multi-year assignments across our managed services and consulting business.
Software revenue from Industry increased by 45% to £4.4m (H1 2019: £3.1m); while at an early stage we have achieved substantial progress across a number of strategic enterprise and partnership opportunities, some of which we expect to close and announce during H2.
Managed services and consulting revenue up 7% to £45.2m (H1 2019: £42.5m) with our long-term, strategic client relationships and market-leading services enabling continued growth.
Completion of the acquisition of the minority shareholdings in KX Systems, taking 100% ownership, funded by new financing facilities which provide flexibility to support the Group’s growth plans.
Strong pipeline and momentum going into the second half provide us with confidence in the Group’s full year performance.

Seamus Keating, Executive Chairman of FD, commented: “We successfully executed on our strategy during the period, signing a number of key contracts across our business, and making strong progress towards securing landmark contracts in the markets we are targeting across Industry. We continue to progress our search for a new CEO following the passing in July of our founder, Brian Conlon, and we will provide an update when the process is complete.

Our financial performance was solid, and we are encouraged by the growing momentum through the period that provides confidence in achieving another year of strong growth, in line with consensus forecasts*.”

*The Group believes consensus revenue and adjusted EBITDA (excluding the impact of IFRS 16) forecasts for the year to 29 February 2020 to be £242.9m and £43.8m respectively.

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