Brady boosts profit, revenue in 1H09; says ‘well placed’ for growth
Brady plc, specialists in trading, risk management and settlement software for metals and commodities, said sales increased 49% to £3.7m in the six to 30 June 2009.
Operating profit was up 706% to £0.27m compared to a low base of £0.03m for H1 2008. Pretax profit grew 42% to £0.31m.
Chairman Paul Fullagar said the growth in revenues and profits "demonstrates the continued success and momentum following the reorganisation in 2007 and execution of the new business plan set out in 2008.
"The sales organisation has been strengthened and a focus on our core business has generated improved operating margins, which has been further complemented by the addition of Comsoft. Comsoft was acquired and successfully integrated in the period, and continues to perform above its plan.
The Board said is confident Brady will meet its expectations for the full year and remains well placed for future growth."
CEO Gavin Lavelle said the Cambridge-based Group announced three significant new licence contracts in the first half of 2009.
In March Xstrata Copper selected Brady's Aquarius solution for its metal trading. This was the first sale of Aquarius since Brady acquired the specialist metals trading technology through its acquisition of Comsoft in January. Aquarius is also being put in place by Asarco.
In June Brady signed two further licence deals. The first was with a leading global investment bank and member of London Precious Metals Clearing Ltd who signed a contract to use Brady's technology for precious metals inventory management and connection to the Aurum clearing system. The second was with Japan's largest general trading company, who signed a contract to extend the use of Brady's trading and risk technology to include all of their global trading of both physical and derivative precious metals.
The Group anticipates there will be continuing pressure for its customers to address increasing regulatory and accounting compliance requirements, providing a strong market driver to improve internal trading and risk management, or to move away from internal legacy systems or spreadsheets.
About half of revenue is from Europe, 40% from North America and the remainder from Asia. The Group has continued to invest significantly in product development, most notably in functionality that supports a SMART interface for the LME, increasing trade automation, physical gold trading and enhanced value at risk capability.
In June, the Group said Robert Brady, currently Chief Technology Officer, will become a non-executive director at the end of September. Dr. Brady remains a major shareholder in the Company.
The Board said it is convinced Brady has built a strong foundation to support ongoing growth in the remainder of 2009 and beyond.
It continues to look for opportunities and is engaged with a number of potential candidates, in order to enhance its product offering and build on its customer base through selective further acquisitions.
Since May, the company's share price has grown by around a third. Brady is now valued at around £17.6m.
