Guy Berruyer, Chief Executive, commented: "These good results reflect the strong fundamentals of Sage's business including our leading market positions, a large and loyal customer base, a culture of innovation and robust financial position. In the past year we have continued to build on these foundations to deliver higher revenue and profit growth in the future. With our strong cash flows, confidence in our business and our focus on shareholder returns, we are evolving our approach to the use of capital, and as part of the process, the Board has rebased the dividend, resulting in a proposed 25% increase for 2011.
As we look forward, there are clearly significant macro-economic concerns which may impact SMEs, particularly in the eurozone, and our customers are telling us through our Sage Business Index that they see the outlook remaining uncertain. However, the strengths of our business position us well to deal with the ups and downs of the economic cycle. Given the current economic uncertainty, we will continue to manage the business prudently, whilst pursuing the significant longer term opportunities we have in our markets".
