Escher Group swings to full year profit

AIM-listed Escher Group said on Monday that it swung to a pre-tax profit in 2015 and expressed confidence about the prospects for this year and beyond.

For the year to the end of December, pre-tax profit came in at $1.1m (£0.8m) compared with a loss of £500,000 the previous year on revenue of $22m, up 4%.

The software provider attributed the increase in profitability to the transition to maintenance of two major customers in North America and Malaysia and the initiation of a major subscription based contract in Germany.

It said these were key developments and large contributors to the company being able to transition towards having more predictable revenue streams.

Operating expenses, meanwhile, fell by 6% to $12m thanks to strong cost management and lower costs as a result of favourable exchange rates.

Chief executive Liam Church said: "Over the last few years, we have heavily invested in developing a very flexible and scalable Digital Transaction Management platform which can be used across a range of vertical markets and opportunities. As a result, we have seen several new contract wins in our complementary businesses, Digital Services and Interactive Services.”

"We are also looking at licensing our platform to other businesses who require technology to provide solutions for markets where Escher does not currently operate, opening up diverse opportunities."

At 1535 GMT, Escher shares were up 4% to 169p.