CA sees profits rise and predicts further growth

Revenues down but profits up as company raises expectations for the next six months

Swainson: seeing some improvement in the economic climate

IT software and services firm CA reported profits of $232m (£142m) for the second quarter, a six per cent rise on the $219m recorded in the second quarter 2008.

Revenues were $1.07bn (£654m), down 1 per cent from the $1.1bn (£673m) recorded for the same period last year.

Chief executive John Swainson said: “We are seeing some improvement in the economic climate, especially in North America, and a willingness by customers to discuss strategic projects that will help tightly align their IT and the management of their IT resources with business imperatives."

Swainson says he expects revenues to pick up further in the second half of the year.

CA continued to see improvement in its mainframe performance, with significant growth in new product sales and demand for capacity as well as a benefit from customer decisions to rationalise their mainframe software and consolidate on fewer vendors.

During the second quarter, the company signed 18 licence agreements with aggregate values greater than $10m (£6.1m) for a total of $366m (£224m), compared with 17 licence agreements totalling $892m (£546m) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2009.

The firm said it also experienced healthy demand for its business governance, service management, security management and automation offerings.