Shares in Marlborough Stirling slipped 8.9% to 25.5 pence as the UK-based supplier of software and services to the life, pensions and mortgage market reported a decline in sales and failed to declare a dividend at the end of its first full year as a public company.
The company reported pre-tax losses, including impairment and restructuring charges, of £34.5 million, compared to a profit of £9.3 million in 2002, and warned of difficult times to come. Underlying operating profit was down from £14.8 million to £11.5 million.
The company took a £4.1 million charge to cover redundancy costs as it shed some 500 staff, and cautioned that 100 more job losses will follow as the group restructures into four business units during the first half of the year.
Revenue from existing business climbed 17% to £81.9 million pounds in 2002. Almost half of turnover was attributable to software and consultancy, 39% came from outsourcing and 12% from portal services. In 2001, software and consultancy accounted for 77% of total turnover.
Graham Coxell, Marlborough Stirling chief executive says strong growth in outsourcing helped to offset weakness in software sales.
"In the circumstances our financial performance is reasonable," he says. "Although we see some early, encouraging signs of renewed interest in software in the early part of this year we have taken firm steps to reduce costs in order to maintain profitability in a year in which we are assuming sales will be slightly lower than in 2002."