Financial highlights - doubling of organic revenue growth
- Organic revenue growth of 4% in the year (2012: 2%), and 5% in H2 demonstrates acceleration in growth;
- EBITA margin maintained at 27% (2012: 27%), with continued investment for growth;
- Strong operating cash flow of £417.4m (2012: £383.8m), representing 112% of EBITA (2012:106%);
- Proposed final ordinary dividend per share of 7.44p per share (2012: 7.02p per share), resulting in a total ordinary dividend of 11.32p per share (2012: 10.68p per share), an increase of 6%; and
- Total cash returned to shareholders in the year of £571.8m (2012: £434.0m).
Investment, innovation and focus delivering results
- 32% increase in investment in higher-growth opportunities supporting our cloud and connected services strategy;
- Meeting our technology milestones with Sage One, our cloud solution for smaller businesses, launched in eight markets and cloud versions of leading ERP products launched in the UK and Spain;
- Strong acceleration in adoption of Sage One, with over 21,000 paying subscribers in the UK & Ireland, an increase of more than three-fold in 12 months;
- 12% organic revenue growth for Sage ERP X3 (2012: 5%), our global ERP solution for mid-market customers, delivering on our target for double-digit growth;
- 13,800 integrated payments customers (2012: 9,700), reflecting the value of integrated connected services;
- 6% growth in recurring revenue (2012: 6%), and flat software and software-related services ("SSRS") revenue (2012: 5% contraction); and
- Organic customer additions of 256,000 (2012: 229,000) during the year, with renewal rates on contracts increasing to 82% (2012: 81%).
Guy Berruyer, Chief Executive, said: "I am pleased to report a strong set of results, with good growth across all regions and our strategic initiatives progressing well. These results highlight the strong appeal of our offering to SMEs, great execution in delivering on our plans and the benefit of a clear strategy, which focuses on our most significant growth opportunities. The strategy is working and growth is accelerating. We remain confident of achieving our target of 6% organic revenue growth in 2015, and anticipate further progress during the year ahead."
