Sage's recurring revenues grow amid Covid-19

(Sharecast News) - Software group Sage saw recurring revenues grow in the nine months ended 30 June as the firm continued to focus on migrating existing customers and attract new clients to its business cloud product.
Sage said on Thursday that recurring revenues increased by 9% in the period to £1.24bn, underpinned by software subscription growth of 22.6% to £885m. Total revenues grew 4.1% year-to-date to £1.39bn.

Software subscription revenue growth was principally driven by a strong showing across North America and Northern Europe.

While Sage acknowledged that trading continued to be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, its performance so far in the year had been helped by its "strong focus on customer success" and a lower than expected level of churn among its diversified small and medium customer base.

Going forward, Sage said it remains "cautious" given the continuing economic uncertainties and risks to small and medium business customers as government support schemes come to an end. However, the company said it expects full-year recurring revenue growth to be in the vicinity of 7-8%.

Chief financial officer Jonathan Howell said: "Sage has achieved good results in the first nine months, continuing to deliver against our strategy, in line with our vision to become a great SaaS company."

"We are confident that our sustained investment in Sage Business Cloud throughout the economic cycle will form a strong base for the long-term success of Sage."

As of 0835 BST, Sage shares were up 1.41% at 717p.