Fidessa exceeds expectations

Financial IT firm reports positive results but says 2010 conditions are hard to predict

The London Stock Exchange is one of Fidessa's main UK clients

Financial IT firm Fidessa has reported a 31 per cent increase in full-year profit but remains cautious about market conditions in 2010.

The UK software company supplies brokers and banks with sophisticated multi-asset trading, market data, order management and execution capabilities.

Adjusted pre-tax profit at Fidessa reached £36.2m, while revenue grew by 26 per cent to £238.5m, beating analysts expectations of full-year revenue of £236.4m and adjusted pre-tax profit of £32.5m.

Despite seeing a steady improvement in the business environment towards the end of 2009, the company's chief executive Chris Aspinwall said the current economic scenario and the possibility of government regulation made 2010 difficult to predict.

"On the assumption that markets remain reasonably stable we believe we can continue to deliver good growth for 2010 as a whole. However, the impact of higher levels of consolidation and business closures within our customer base during 2009, will inevitably have some effect on our growth during 2010," Aspinwall said in a statement.

"As a result, we do not believe that the overall rate of growth in 2010 will be as high as that seen during 2009," he added.

One of Fidessa's main customers in the UK is the London Stock Exchange. The bourse signed up the vendor last year to develop the order management and smart order routing technology underpinning its dark-pool facility Baikal.