A focus on reshaping Software company Sage's cloud services ate into profits in the year ending September.

The company said operating profit fell 10.5% to £382 million, despite a 4.9% increase in revenue for the period.

The company is in the process of moving its customers from traditional software to software provided through the internet, or the cloud, so they can access services from different computers without having to re-install the software each time.

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The switch also includes a change to a subscription-based model, rather than one based on a one-off upfront payment.

Revenue from software and related services (SSRS) fell 18% to £255 million as the company moved over to a subscription model.

"We've ... made significant progress in our strategic execution, particularly in the development and roll out of our cloud offerings and the reshaping of our portfolio," said chief executive Steve Hare.

Defence giant Babcock International has seen half-year profits drop by nearly a fifth, but put faith in its turnaround strategy as it secured a raft of new projects.

The group - which is the Ministry of Defence's second largest contractor - reported an 18% fall in underlying pre-tax profits to £202.5 million for the six months to September 30.

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Statutory pre-tax profits more than doubled to £152.5 million from the £65.1 million seen a year earlier when it was hit by exceptional costs.

The firm ipointed to an order book rising to £18 billion thanks to recent wins including contracts to build the Type 31 warship for the UK's Royal Navy and provide training to London's Metropolitan Police Service.

It secured around £3.5 billion of contracts overall in its first half.

Upper Crust owner SSP saw shares slip after it announced plans to buy back up to £100 million of shares while sales continued to grow.

The travel food retailer said the new financial year has started positively but cautioned over uncertainty regarding passenger numbers amid a turbulent period for the travel industry.

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SSP revealed the trading update as it reported a 7.8% jump in pre-tax profits to £197.2 million for the year to September 30.

Revenues also increased by 7.8% to £2.79 billion for the period, as it was buoyed by growth in North America and continental Europe.

The company hailed "another strong performance" over the year, despite being impacted by "some external headwinds".

Like-for-like sales across the group increased by 1.9% as it was boosted by increased numbers of air and train passengers.