Software giant Sage says growth across the first three months of its 2023 financial year was in line with its expectations.
The Tyneside-based plc told the London Stock Exchange that recurring revenue increased by 12% to £517m in the first quarter, underpinned by a strong performance in its cloud business. Sage said total underlying group revenue grew 10% on the same period the year before, to £540m.
In North America - the firm's largest market - recurring revenue increased 18% to £235m and in the UK, Ireland and Africa market recurring grew 12% to £151m. Meanwhile in Europe, recurring revenue increased by 3% to £131m as growth in cloud sales was partly offset by the sale of Sage's Swiss business.
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Elsewhere, the Future Sage Business Cloud portfolio - software products to be migrated to the cloud - grew by 14% to £479m. The firm said that was driven by new customers, as well as moving existing customers to the cloud.
Jonathan Howell, chief financial officer, said: "Sage has made a strong start to the year, in line with our expectations, as Sage Business Cloud solutions help more customers improve their productivity and resilience. While we are mindful of the current macroeconomic environment, we remain confident in our strategy for delivering efficient growth and we reiterate our guidance for the full year, as set out in our FY22 results announcement."
In November, Sage posted results for its 2022 financial year which saw revenue reach £1.9bn. The performance followed the UK acquisitions of ecommerce specialist Brightpearl and cashflow management firm Futrli, as well as the purchase of US-based accounting software outfit Lockstep.
Speaking to BusinessLive at the time, Sage CEO Steve Hare said that while economic uncertainty was apparent, the firm's small and medium-sized business customer base wanted to counteract tougher times by improving productivity and "do more with less".
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