By Kristy Dorsey
A 40 per cent increase in new sales overshadowed a decline in profits at Craneware as investors looked to the prospects for the enlarged software business.
The Edinburgh-based company, which sells its billing platforms to healthcare providers in the US, said exceptional costs from the £283 million acquisition of Florida-headquartered Sentry led to a 32 per cent decline in profits to $13.2m (£9.7m) for the year to June 30. The Sentry deal, announced in early June, is the biggest acquisition in Craneware’s 20-plus years of trading.
Co-founder and chief executive Keith Neilson said visible sales for the enlarged group over the next three years now stand at $471m, up from $200m previously. Integration of the two businesses, leading to an estimated $10m of cost savings, is progressing ahead of schedule.
“We are at day 69 of the acquisition, and we are through at least the 100 day targets, if not 120 days,” he said.
READ MORE: Scottish software specialist raises £136m to finance US acquisition
Revenues of $75.6m were up by 6%, driven by the rise in new sales. The new sales figure was the highest recorded since 2018.
Mr Neilson said the increase in new business sales was a “little bit” down to pent-up demand, but mostly an acceleration of upselling to existing users. One particular success, noted by analysts at Peel Hunt, has been upgrades from users of the freemium Trisus Pricing Transparency product.
Almost half of all US hospitals now use at least one Craneware or Sentry product, while the latter also brings significant scope in the pharmaceutical sector. Craneware is also on course for general release of its new Trisus Chargemaster product, which is currently in use by a few select customers.
Shares Craneware closed yesterday’s trading 2.6% lower at 2,240p.
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