Newry-headquartered technology company First Derivatives (FD) said its business remained robust despite the ongoing pandemic, with momentum picking up towards the end of the financial year.
The group also said it would target a doubling of revenue by its fiscal year 2025 as it unveiled a new strategy.
Results were largely as expected for for the year ended February 28th 2021. FD said revenue was flat for 2021, at £237.9 million, while gross profit was £101 million. Pretax profit fell 39 per cent to £11.1 million.
But FD said things picked up towards the end of the financial year, and the momentum continued into its current financial year as it notched up contract wins in key target markets.
FD said it would accelerate its growth strategy as demand for real-time continuous intelligence increased.
The group plans to rename itself as FD Technologies, comprising three businesses – KX, First Derivative and MRP – with each brand having a distinct identity and market, and maximising its growth opportunity.
The group will continue to drive its KX technology as it attempts to position t
It is targeting 10 per cent revenue growth for the current financial year for First Derivatives, while MRP will target 20 per cent growth in platform revenue for the current financial year.
“Following a detailed review by the board, informed by growing market opportunities resulting from the increasing capabilities of our technology, we have concluded that now is the time for targeted investment that will accelerate our growth and establish KX as a world-leading horizontal technology for real-time streaming analytics,” said Donna Troy, chairman of FD. “We are excited to announce this acceleration of our strategy and look forward to delivering enhanced value for our customers and shareholders.”
For the current financial year, the board is forecasting revenue for the year will be in the range of £255 million to £260 million, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the range of £31 million to £33 million.
he technology as the leader in real-time streaming analytics.
“Using streaming analytics to inform and automate operational decisions is one of the most important growth areas in technology today, and KX enables this for our customers,” said Seamus Keating, chief executive of FD. “During the past year we have positioned the business to scale rapidly to address this opportunity, by accelerating our technology roadmap, strengthening our leadership, developing our commercial strategy and putting in place enhanced systems and processes to scale the group. By increasing our investment in the business we unlock the potential for rapid growth and for KX to become a key part of tomorrow’s technology ecosystem.”
