Aveva confident on FY as first-half revenues fall

Industrial software group Aveva said first-half revenue would be broadly in plan with expectations and maintained full-year guidance.

The company on Monday said revenue would be £333m for the first six months of its fiscal year. The period would reflect an increased foreign exchange translation headwind and two medium sized subscription deals slipping from the second quarter into the third.

Adjusting for a previously disclosed early renewal of a significant global account contract, which caused a £20m pull forward of revenue into September 2019, the organic constant currency revenue fall was 7%. Without this adjustment, the decline was 12%, Aveva said.

“The order pipeline for the remainder of the financial year is strong, underpinned by a higher volume of contract renewals, including major global account contracts, as well as the contracts that slipped from the second quarter. As such, the board expects to see solid revenue growth in the second half and remains confident in the full year outlook,” it added.

In a separate statement, the company said it had completed the syndication of the £250m revolving credit facility relating to its $5bn acquisition of OSIsoft announced in August, with HSBC and Santander joining JP Morgan, Barclays and BNP Paribas as providers.

Aveva said its proposed $900m loan would not now proceed to syndication, but rather be provided directly to Aveva by Schneider Electric, the firm’s largest shareholder.

The timetable for the OSIsoft acquisition and launch of the proposed rights issue, expected early next month, remained on track, the company added.