Sage waiting on Europe

Accountancy software leviathan Sage has been trading broadly in line with expectations since the end of March but is still waiting for the looked-for pick-up in Europe to happen.

"The main trends we highlighted at our interim results in May continue to be a feature of our trading performance," said Guy Berruyer, Chief Executive of Sage.

"Whilst we remain cautious on the outlook for Europe, and watchful of this region's economic climate, the strong fundamentals of our business model remain and we continue to make good progress in executing against our business priorities. We look forward to tomorrow's investor day where we will be sharing our plans for the future growth of the business," he added.

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Although conditions on the European mainland toughened, the UK and Ireland businesses demonstrated good growth in the quarter, while the North American operations also saw a quarter-on-quarter improvement.

Sage said the Africa, Australia, Middle East and Asia region continues to perform well, with South African and Australia driving growth.

Net debt at 30th June was £121.7m, down from a net cash positive position of £122.1m at the end of March, after the group completed the £125m acquisition of Brazilian company Folhamatic at the end of June and returned £200m to shareholders from the proceeds of the disposal of Sage Software Healthcare.

JH