Accounting software firm Sage has reported a rise in first-half profits to just beat forecasts.
Pretax profit for the six months to the end of March rose 19 per cent to £113.7 million, 2 to 3 per cent higher than it said it would achieve last month. Revenues were up 18 per cent at £455.9 million.
However, organic growth, which excludes acquisitions, rose 5 per cent, disappointing analysts, with a strong performance in Sage's newer territories such as South Africa and Australia offset by a 2 per cent rise in the competitive market for mid-sized US companies.
Sage said it would continue to look for potential acquisition targets, with around £400 million to fund its ambitions, despite last month's surprise setback after a $625 million deal for Norwegian firm Visma was lost to private equity group HgCapital.
Sage - which sells accounting, payroll, payment and human resource software - is also looking to build its US business and confirmed it was spending a total of £17 million on buying Contractor Anywhere and Master Builder from rival Intuit in the US mid-market construction sector.