LONDON (Alliance News) - SCISYS PLC Wednesday said it continues to believe it will meet expectations for the full-year, as it saw an improved pretax profit in the half-year to the end of June, as restructuring in the previous year helped to lower operating costs.
The software and IT services company proposed an interim dividend of 0.44 pence, up from 0.40 pence.
It posted a pretax profit of GBP1.3 million, nearly doubled from GBP749,000 the previous year, despite seeing revenue decline slightly to GBP21.1 million from GBP21.4 million, as it cut down operating expenses and saw lower exceptional costs.
The company undertook "significant operational restructuring" in late 2013, which led to exceptional costs in that year which did not recur, and SCISYS said this restructuring has shown "tangible outcomes." Operating costs fell to GBP19.8 million from GBP20.5 million.
The company's Enterprise Solutions & Defence business performed well as progress in the defence, government and commercial markets helped to offset the "significant decline" in the environment sector. The order book for this business at the half-year was up 10% from the start of the year.
Its Space division performed in line with 2013 as margin improvements offset lower revenues, caused by delays to some German national programmes. The division improved in the UK, winning a contract with the European Space Agency, and its German branch renewed a contract with the space agency's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt.
The Media and Broadcast division saw order intake come under pressure, although it secured some maintenance contract renewals. In the UK the company deployed its latest dira! technology to the BBC broadcasting house in London. The international business still faces challenges, however, as potential customers continue to delay buying decisions.
SCISYS said that its order book in June was 2% higher than its opening position in 2014, which further underpins its expectations for the second-half.
Shares in the company were Wednesday morning trading 0.53% lower at 93.00 pence per share.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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