Cedardata Plc, the accounting and financial software developer, has announced its first results since floating on the London Stock Exchange in March this year. The New Malden, Surrey-based Oracle value-added reseller saw pre-tax profit up 53% at #2.7m for the year ended March 31, slightly ahead of the #2.65m forecast at the time of flotation, on turnover that rose 16% to #6.1m compared with the #5.9m forecast in March. The breakdown of these figures shows that revenue from software consultancy and training saw the biggest rise of 38% to #1.5m, and maintenance revenue was up 35% to #1.1m, while software licence turnover grew 15% to #2.7m and bureau service revenue rose 4.5% to #463,000. The firm said that it experienced a stronger second half in sales. It had cash balances of #2.72m at the year-end and a nil gearing ratio. For the current fiscal year, managing director Leon Fattal said that the company plans to maintain this steady growth and has enlarged its sales team and altered the management structure to enable it to deal with expansion more easily. It will also develop those markets that saw success in the past financial year, notably local authority and health care as well as working for customers in the government, commecial, and education sectors. At present the company gets 50% of its revenues from the public sector. It gets nearly all its revenue form UK operations at present, but hopes to expand its business on the the international scene by working with local distributors and setting up joint venture partnerships. It will also consider using some of its cash to acquire a complementary software company. On the technology side Cedardata is planning to convert its CFACS financial accounting product range to work within a graphical user interface and client-server operating environment. As the product is based around an Oracle relational environment it says this will enable the conversion from a character-based environment to a graphical one without the need to re-develop thes product, enabling the firm to maintain its research and development expenditure at under 10% of revenue.
