Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - dotDigital Group PLC Tuesday said Non-Executive Director Simone Barratt will succeed Peter Simmonds as chief executive, while posting a decline in pretax profit in the year to end-June but doubling its dividend.
Simmonds will retire from his position no later than end-September 2015. Barratt will move to a deputy chief executive officer role with immediate effect and be CEO designate.
Barratt previously held the position of managing director of UK, Europe and APAC with eDialog, which was acquired by eBay Inc and renamed eBay enterprises.
The software-as-a-service company posted a pretax profit of GBP3.6 million for the financial year to June 30, down from GBP4.0 million in the previous year, despite seeing revenue rise to GBP16.2 million from GBP12.2 million. Profit was trimmed by an up-tick in administrative expenses.
Revenue growth was driven primarily by a strong performance from dotDigital's core email marketing product dotmailer, which saw revenues up 33% compared to the previous year. The company signed up new clients including Land Securities Group PLC and Ladbrokes PLC during the year.
dotDigital launched its new Magento connector product in the year, and said it had seen strong client sign0ups for the product, with average monthly recurring revenue spend for customers over GBP700 per month.
"Demand for email marketing and marketing automation continues to be strong both in the UK and internationally, and whilst the sector continues to be competitive, the board believes that the dotmailer platform is well placed to continue to generate strong organic growth in revenues over the coming year," the company said in a statement.
dotDigital proposed a final dividend of 0.2 pence, up from 0.1 pence a year before.
The company said that the new financial year has started well, and its new business sales and monthly recurring revenues were in line with plans in the first quarter.
Edison Investment Research analyst Fiona Orford-Williams said that Barratt's industry background gives her the experience to "push dotDigital?s business in the crucial US market. "Success in the US, building on the groundwork already made by Simmonds? team, would be transformational for the group," Orford-Williams added.
Shares in dotdigital are trading up 1.5% at 34.50 pence Tuesday morning. The stock touched 36.12p after the open, just below its 52-week high of 37.75p.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
