FD releases Interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2015

11 November 2015

First Derivatives plc
(“FD”, the “Company” or the “Group”)
Interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2015

FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I), a leading provider of software and consulting services, announces its results for the six months ended 31 August 2015.

Financial highlights

Revenue £53.8m (H1 2015: £37.5m) +44%
EBITDA £10.8m (H1 2015: £6.2m) +73%
Profit before tax £4.6m (H1 2015: £3.7m) +27%
Adjusted* profit before tax £7.6m (H1 2015: £4.5m) +69%
Reported diluted EPS 13.9p (H1 2015: 13.5p) +3%
Adjusted* diluted EPS 23.9p (H1 2015: 16.5p) +44%
Interim dividend 5.0p per share (H1 2015: 3.3p) +52%
Net debt £10.5m (H1 2015: £9.1m)

*Adjusted for amortisation of acquired intangibles, share based payments, profit on disposal of property, acquisition costs, finance translation income/charges (and associated taxation impact for EPS).

Business highlights

Multi-year investment in software continuing to pay off with new clients within financial services markets driving software revenue growth of 87%.
Further growth and strategic progress in consulting, with increased scale and broader expertise resulting in revenue growth of 28%.
Strategic acquisitions of Affinity Systems and ActivateClients for a combined initial consideration of £7.1m generating positive results in the digital marketing and utilities sectors.
Pipeline of software opportunities outside financial services growing, with increased sales and marketing effort.
Board further strengthened through the appointments of Virginia Gambale and Jon Robson.

Post period-end highlights

Formation of FD Labs to focus innovation and enable the widespread adoption and deployment of kdb+.

Seamus Keating, Chairman of FD, commented:
“This was another period of strong progress across the Group. Our consulting division delivered revenue growth of 28% and during the period a number of initiatives laid the foundations for FD to continue our remarkable track record of more than 20% per annum growth in consulting revenue. Although we remain at an early stage of full commercialisation of our software products we are pleased to report an impressive 87% growth in software revenue as we continued to penetrate our key target markets in the period.”

“The positive performance in the first half of our financial year has continued into the second half and the high visibility within both consulting and software gives the Board confidence that the Group expects to meet market expectations for the full year. We will continue to invest to position ourselves to benefit from our software’s technology lead, to build upon this and look to convert our pipeline of opportunities within capital markets and other sectors. We continue to believe the work and investments we have made, along with our market positioning in both consulting and software, provide a strong platform to meet our exciting growth ambitions.”

For further information please contact:

First Derivatives plc
+44(0)28 3025 2242
www.fdtechnologies.com

Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer
Graham Ferguson, Chief Financial Officer
Ian Mitchell, Head of Investor Relations

Investec Bank plc (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
+44 (0)20 7597 4000

Dominic Emery
Carlton Nelson
Sebastian Lawrence

Goodbody (ESM Adviser and Broker)
+353 1 667 0420

Linda Hickey
Finbarr Griffin

Walbrook PR
+44 (0)20 7933 8780

Paul Cornelius
Nick Rome
Helen Cresswell
Sam Allen

About FD
FD is a global technology provider with nearly 20 years of experience of working with some of the world’s largest finance, technology and energy institutions. FD is the developer of the world-leading database technology kdb+. FD employs over 1,500 people worldwide and has operations in London, New York, Stockholm, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, Palo Alto, Toronto, Philadelphia, Dublin, Belfast and its headquarters in Newry