Jade Software yesterday announced an impressive interim profit for the six months ended June, but chief executive Craig Richardson has warned that the full-year result could be down on last year.
Operating earnings for the period were $4.82 million, compared to $4.42 million in the previous corresponding period. Reported profit was $1.2 million compared to $876,000.
Revenue increased to $24.2 million from $23.5 million.
"Despite a good performance this half year, Jade is not immune to the adverse global conditions and we expect that the result for the full year will be down on 2008.
"That said, the company is well positioned to weather the economic downturn and to take advantage of the recovery in 2010," Mr Richardson said.
The Christchurch-based company has operations in Dunedin.
Jade chief financial officer David Lindsay said profit growth for the period was attributed largely to operational improvements and careful management of costs.
In 2008, 20% of Jade's revenue came from logistics and 25% from the financial services sector.
With Jade's European logistics customers reporting up to a 60% reduction in cargo movements and the unprecedented conditions in banking, finance and insurance, the company was expecting that to be reflected in the year-end result, he said.
However, against the economic trend, Jade announced in June that Messina Line had selected the Jade Master Terminal (JMT) product to manage cargo movements at its terminal in Genoa, Italy.
Mr Richardson said terminal operators now recognised JMT as a "genuine challenger" to established products.
The company was pursuing strong leads in Europe and the Middle East, as well as the Americas, and was actively testing market opportunities.
Sales of Jade's management product slowed with the global downturn but the investigation management product, Investigator, was selected by a prestigious European police force, he said.
Investigator had been launched in China and Jade was exploring opportunities in other emerging markets.
