The Sage Group plc unaudited results for the six months ended 31 March 2017

Wednesday 3rd May 2017

Download the full PDF of the press release.

Strong performance

Operating performance

• Achieved:
  • H1 17 organic1 revenue growth of 6.4% (excluding North American Payments) with stronger organic revenue growth in Q2 of 7.0% (H1 16: 6.6%);
  • H1 17 underlying1 revenue growth (including North American Payments) of 5.7% with underlying growth in Q2 of 6.3% (H1 16: 6.2%);
• Organic recurring revenue growth of 9.9% (H1 2016: 10.0%) and software subscription growth of 30.5% (H1 16: 34.8%), with managed 7.5% decline in SSRS revenue in line with the planned migration to subscription (H1 16: SSRS decline of 6.2%);
• Organic operating margin of 25.2% (H1 16: 25.6%) achieved, in line with front-loading investment into H1 which will support accelerating momentum in H2;
• Underlying cash conversion at 104% (H1 16: 111%), supporting free cash flow of £166m (H1 16: £142m) and the 8.8% increase in interim dividend to 5.22p;
• General and administrative (G&A) expense as a proportion of revenue has reduced to 15.2% (H1 16: 19.7%);
• Non-recurring items (exceptional costs) of £19m (H1 16: £29m) have secured annualised cost savings of £28m in the first six months of the year (H1 16: £17m), to be reinvested into growth, particularly sales and marketing. On track for full year annualised savings in excess of £50m.

1 See full definition of organic revenue and underlying revenue in appendix II on page 17.

 

FINANCIAL SUMMARY	H1 17	H1 16	Change
Organic revenue	£838m	£787m	6.4%
- Recurring revenue	£647m	£589m	9.9%
- Processing revenue	£44m	£39m	11.1%
- SSRS revenue	£147m	£159m	-7.5%
Underlying revenue	£912m	£863m	5.7%
Organic operating profit	£211m	£201m	5.0%
Organic operating profit margin	25.2%	25.6%	-0.4%
Underlying basic EPS	14.45p	14.17p	2.0%
Underlying cash conversion	104%	111%	-7.0%
Ordinary dividend per share	5.22p	4.80p	8.8%

 

STATUTORY SUMMARY - CONTINUING OPERATIONS	H1 17	H1 16	Change
Revenue	£840m	£684m	22.7%
Operating profit	£180m	£137m	31.6%
Profit before tax	£180m	£128m	41.1%
Basic EPS	12.57p	9.11p	38.0%

 

Statutory performance has been positively impacted by movements in key exchange rates during the year in all major currencies.

 

Building our business model for accelerating growth

• New customer acquisition is starting to gain traction through the “Cloud First” initiative:
  • Sage One annual recurring revenue (ARR) increased by 88% to £22m with an average annual contract value (ACV) of £70;
  • Sage Live customers at 889 with a March average ACV of £1,800;
  • Sage X3 revenue increased by 17% with 200 new customers added in H1;
  • Rolling out our cloud accounting products in our major geographies, with 52 product launches planned in FY17;
• Acquisitions of Fairsail and Compass announced in H1 17;
• Strategic review of Payments concluded and North American Payments business now classified as an asset held for sale and a discontinued operation. The Sage Pay UK & Ireland and Sage Pay South Africa businesses will be retained as they are delivering integrated solutions core to the strategy.

Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive Officer said:

“These are positive results in line with market expectations and there are clear signs our strategy is working, with seven of our nine largest geographies, that collectively generate 95% of our revenues5, now delivering growth in excess of our revenue guidance. The investments in our go-to-market functions are starting to bear fruit: our cloud-enabled products are growing strongly and we have made progress in our new customer acquisition strategy, driving momentum in Q2 that will continue throughout H2 and as we exit FY17. 

Our updated payments and banking strategy and the acquisition of Fairsail, show our commitment to the golden triangle of accounting, people & payroll and payments & banking, reinforced by our cloud capabilities. We are focused on Sage continuing to invest in growth, predominantly through new customer acquisition with cloud-products, and supported by bolt-on acquisitions that accelerate the strategy.”

 

Outlook

The business as defined and constituted at the time of publishing FY17 guidance included North American Payments and excluded the contributions from FY17 acquisitions. On this basis we are very confident of exceeding our full year guidance of 6% revenue growth. In addition we reconfirm our guidance of at least 27% operating margin on an underlying basis with acquisitions having no dilutive impact. We confirm there will be no further transformation-related exceptional charge post FY17 and the exceptional charge for current year is not expected to exceed £75m. We expect our strong Q2 performance to continue into H2 with accelerating momentum as we exit FY17. 

 

About Sage

Sage – the market and technology leader for integrated accounting, payroll and payment systems, powered by the cloud and supporting the ambition of the world’s entrepreneurs and business builders. Because when business builders do well, we all do.

For more information, visit sage.com

Enquiries:

The Sage Group plc
+44 (0) 191 294 3457
Lauren Wholley, Investor Relations
Amy Lawson, Corporate PR

FTI Consulting 
+44 (0) 20 3727 1000
Charles Palmer
Dwight Burden

An analyst presentation will be held at 8.30am today at the London Stock Exchange plc, 10 Paternoster Square, London, EC4M 7LS. A live webcast of the presentation will be hosted on sage.com/investors, dial-in number +44 (0) 20 3427 1904, pin code: 3583475#. A replay of the call will also be available for two weeks after the event: Tel: +44 (0) 20 3427 0598, pin code: 3583475#