Netcall Share News (NET)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Netcall PLC Tuesday said it is confident in delivering a positive outcome for its full year and proposed a maiden interim dividend, as it reported a fall in pretax profit for its first half.

For the half-year to end December the company reported a pretax profit of GBP784,000, down from GBP1.4 million a year before, as revenue fell slightly to GBP8.1 million from GBP8.6 million.

Netcall proposed a maiden interim dividend of 0.95 pence, and the company said it expects to pay an interim dividend over the next two years, although this will remain subject to the company's on-going cash generation, it not having found an appropriate acquisition opportunity, or not having returned cash through other means like share buy backs.

Underpinning the company's confidence was "significant interest" in its Liberty customer engagement technology platform during the first half, as well as a rising number of software-as-a-service contracts which will help provide recurring revenue streams in future periods and improve revenue visibility.

"We have seen strong demand for our Liberty product suite with record growth in sales orders. As a result, our order book of contracted future revenues increased by 43% and annualised recurring core revenues grew by 8%," said Chief Executive Officer Henrik Bang in a statement.

"The ongoing success of our Liberty platform, combined with our high levels of recurring revenue, means the board is confident in delivering a positive outcome to the year," Bang added.

Shares in Netcall were up 2.0% at 51.00 pence Tuesday morning.

By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews

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