Jade reports record first half revenues

Christchurch-based Jade Software Corp is reporting record first-half revenues and says its growth is disproportionately coming from overseas.

Jade said today that for the six months to June, revenue reached $24.66 million, up 34 per cent from $18.34 million in the first half of 2005.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisations for the first six months of 2006 were 10 per cent higher than the comparable period of 2005 at $4.4 million, excluding one-off gains arising from major transactions.

More than 60 per cent of first-half revenue was earned outside this country, with growth particularly good in Britain.

Managing director Rod Carr said the emergence of web services and standards had made Jade's technology highly interoperable with more commonly used databases and applications developed in other languages.

That had increased customers' willingness to adopt Jade, with any concerns about its uniqueness overcome by its interoperability and adherence to standards.

The privately-owned company's strongest growth had been in developing solutions where another product was not available, or where the time and cost of adapting a product made Jade's proposition compelling, Dr Carr said.

The two sectors showing the strongest forward work commitments were financial services and logistics.

For example, the total value of residential mortgages administered on Jade systems in Britain exceeded the total value of all residential mortgages on issue by registered banks in New Zealand.

Jade systems also tracked thousands of train, ship and container movements a day, he said.

Paid Jade process licences on issue grew 30 per cent to around 26,000 in the past year. The company employs about 250 staff in this country, Australia, the US and Britain.

- NZPA