First Derivatives is engaged in the provision of a range of support services to the investment bank market, the derivatives technology industry and the provision of its own range of e-business applications. The Company operates two divisions: consultancy division, which provides services to capital markets, and software division, which develops and has an interest in intellectual property and provides related services.
First Derivatives is listed on the AIM market delivering year on year growth since floating in March 2002. First Derivatives has also been listed on ESM since June 2007

http://www.firstderivatives.com/index.html

First Derivatives – stepping into retail Big Data

http://www.techmarketview.com/ukhotviews/archive/2015/01/07/first-derivatives-stepping-into-retail-big-data

Entry into Digital Marketing Platform market
RNS
RNS Number : 4719B
First Derivatives PLC
07 January 2015





7 January 2015

First Derivatives plc

("First Derivatives" or the "Group")



First Derivatives enters fast-growing Digital Marketing Platform market



First Derivatives (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) a leading provider of software and consulting services to the capital markets industry, announces the evolution of its Delta software platform, powered by kdb+, into marketing analytics through the launch of Delta Marketing Cloud. This demonstrates Delta's ability to find applications beyond the Capital Markets sector and is the first new vertical market for the Group since it secured a majority stake in Kx Systems. The move is supported by the signing of a number of key pilot customers.



The explosion of digital and mobile marketing across all vertical markets is driving the need for technologies that can provide real-time analysis of large data volumes, which the Delta platform is ideally placed to meet. Industry analysts CEB estimate that marketing software spend will reach $32 billion by 2018 while, according to the Economist, the digital marketing sector is "going through something akin to the automation of the financial markets in the 1980s, with low latency the key to success." Delta Marketing Cloud assists by combining both speed and scale with a flexible scoring algorithm and alerting process to allow clients to target the right prospects at the right time.



The launch of Delta Marketing Cloud leverages the power of the Group's big data expertise to help sales and marketing professionals increase the return on their marketing and digital advertising investment, using the same core architecture currently used for analysis of billions of financial transactions per day. It combines real-time and reference data from numerous sources including website traffic, real-time advertising data, social media with proprietary CRM and other customer data. This produces a range of data analytics, such as predictive account-based scoring with real time geographic alert functionality to drive the responsiveness of sales channels.



Brian Conlon, CEO of First Derivatives, commented: "We are pleased with the level of interest being shown in Delta Marketing Cloud which has already resulted in us signing a number of key pilot customers. While its commercialisation is still at an early stage, we believe it has the potential to generate significant recurring revenues for the Group. The launch also demonstrates the flexibility of the Delta platform and its ability to take us into new markets where there are exceptionally large volumes of data that require real time analysis. Our technology and experience gives First Derivatives a strong position in this expanding market."

FD acquires Prelytix for up to USD20million
RNS
RNS Number : 9006F
First Derivatives PLC
26 February 2015



26 February 2015



First Derivatives PLC

("FD" or the "Company")



FD acquires Prelytix for up to $20m to boost presence in marketing technology sector



FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I), a leading provider of software and consulting services, today announces it has acquired the entire issued share capital of Prelytix Inc. ("Prelytix") for an initial consideration of US$7.5m (£4.9m) and a maximum total consideration of US$20m (£13.0m). The acquisition, which will be earnings enhancing in the Company's financial year to 29 February 2016, expands FD's presence in the fast-growing marketing technology sector.



The acquisition of Prelytix forms part of FD's strategy to penetrate additional vertical sectors, beyond its core in capital markets, using the capabilities of the Delta platform and kdb+. The combination of an established innovative business in the marketing technology sector, along with the capabilities of FD's software will accelerate the route to market for both companies.

Acquisition rationale

Prelytix, a Massachusetts-based software company, specialises in providing predictive analytics generated from the billions of data points produced by numerous sources such as real-time advertising data, website traffic and social media. Many of the world's largest technology companies such as EMC, HP and IBM are current Prelytix customers.

Prelytix has been partnering with the Company's marketing division, Market Resource Partners, to provide these predictive analytics as part of the Delta Marketing Cloud, the launch of which was announced in January 2015. The acquisition of Prelytix is a logical step and creates one of the first end to end marketing technology firms.



In the year to 31 December 2014, Prelytix reported revenues of $2.0m and $0.1m of operational EBITDA. The net assets of Prelytix on acquisition will be $0.1m.

Mike Kelly and Marc Laplante, co-Founders of Prelytix, commented: "The data we provide results in better intelligence about prospects and higher revenue opportunities for our clients. While Prelytix has achieved rapid growth to date, the size of the data sets we analyse and the complexity of the analytics that has to be performed against it to unlock the full value of the data, has been a limiting factor in our ability to scale our business. With FD and the Delta platform, we look forward to being able to focus on increasing our customer base and providing even more sophisticated analytics to help clients maximise their revenue opportunities."






Terms of the Acquisition



The initial consideration for the acquisition is US$7.5m (£4.9m), of which US$6m (£3.9m) is payable in cash and US$1.5m (£1.0m) through the issue of 74,572 FD new ordinary shares. Deferred consideration of up to US$12.5m (£8.1m) is payable on the achievement of agreed revenue targets over the period to 28 February 2018.



Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer of FD, commented: "Digital marketing is one of a number of vertical markets challenged by rapid growth in data volumes. This acquisition creates a unique end to end technology marketing firm with industry leaders at the helm backed by a software platform and a team of data scientists. This offers the potential to generate significant revenues for the Company. The acquisition of Prelytix follows our £15.3m share placing earlier this month to accelerate opportunities in Fast Data and we continue to target additional vertical markets in which we have the capability to disrupt. We look forward to updating the market in due course."

FD acquires Affinity Systems for up to GBP7.7m
RNS
RNS Number : 0890J
First Derivatives PLC
01 April 2015



1 April 2015



First Derivatives PLC

("FD" or the "Company")



FD acquires Affinity Systems for up to £7.7m to enter new vertical markets



FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I), a leading provider of software and consulting services, today announces it has acquired the entire issued share capital of Affinity Systems Limited ("Affinity") for a maximum total consideration of CAD$14.5m (£7.7m). Affinity is a provider of software development and consultancy services and has recently released a software solution that addresses enterprise big data challenges.



The acquisition of Affinity expands the Company's software and consulting services within the Internet of Things, particularly in industries such as utilities, healthcare and finance and supports FD's strategy to penetrate additional vertical sectors using the capabilities of its Delta platform and kdb+ to capture and analyse large volumes of data, including streaming data.



Acquisition rationale

Affinity, based in Ontario, Canada, employs 45 people and specialises in software development that addresses complex problems across a range of industries, combining third-party and proprietary software. It has a strong track record of project delivery, working with some of the largest and most prestigious organisations in Canada, including New Brunswick Power and London Hydro. In recent years Affinity has focused on big data opportunities around sensor data management and reporting.



Affinity was appointed as a consulting, sales and training partner of Kx Systems, in which FD holds a 65% interest, in February 2014. Since then it has engaged in a number of projects across industries using Kx's kdb+ database at the heart of the solution. Affinity played a key role in the design, development, and testing of the Meter Data Management and Repository (MDM/R) Data Mart for the Independent Electricity System Operator of Ontario. The Data Mart enables the retrieval and querying of smart meter data processed by the MDM/R system, and was designed to process tens of millions of records a second, support hundreds of billions of records, and respond to time-series queries with millisecond latency.



Over the past two financial years, Affinity has augmented its traditional IT consultancy by developing its own Sensor Data Management (SDM) solution. SDM is built on kdb+ and supported by Affinity's high-performance technology that has been proven for applications such as smart meter data management, high-velocity web page creation and real-time financial data distribution. This transaction creates the platform to address the SDM market across several vertical sectors.



In the year to 30 June 2014 Affinity reported revenue of CAN$4.3m (£2.3m) and CAN$0.3m (£0.2m) earnings before tax. Net assets at 30 June 2014 were CAN$1.8m (£1.0m).



Leslie Goldsmith and Hugh Hyndman are the Joint Managing Directors of Affinity and will remain in their current roles following the transaction. Mr Goldsmith commented: "Affinity differentiates itself on its deep domain knowledge and its ability to solve complex problems through the development of well-architected solutions. In recent years this has led us deeper into big data applications with low latency challenges. Through our relationship with Kx Systems, we have been able to create products that leverage the power of kdb+ to ingest and analyse vast quantities of data across a number of vertical sectors." Mr Hyndman added, "With the resources of FD available to us, we expect to be able to accelerate our product development and bring it to market globally at an accelerated pace."



Terms of the Acquisition

The initial consideration for the acquisition is CAD$ 7.0m (£3.7m), of which CAD$5.25m (£2.8m) is payable in cash and CAD$1.75m (£0.9m) through the issue of 78,190 FD new ordinary shares (the "Consideration Shares"). Deferred consideration of up to CAD$7.5m (£4.0m), to be satisfied in cash and/or new ordinary shares, is payable on the achievement of agreed revenue targets over the period to 28 February 2018.



Application has been made for the Consideration Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and the ESM and it is expected that admission will also take place on 7 April 2015.



The Consideration Shares will rank pari passu with the Company's existing ordinary shares.



The current total issued share capital of the Company is 23,165,961 ordinary shares. Following admission of the Consideration Shares the total issued share capital of the Company will increase to 23,244,151 ordinary shares. This figure may be used by Shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a charge to their interest in, the Company under the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. The Company does not hold any shares in treasury and therefore the total number of voting rights in the Company will be 23,244,151.





Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer of FD, commented: "Affinity is a natural fit for FD. Both the strategy of developing software products built on kdb+, one of the world's most powerful databases, and the cultural ethos of Affinity, mirror that of FD. While we have applied our domain knowledge within capital markets, Affinity brings the Company expertise across a number of new vertical sectors. We see this as an exciting opportunity for the Company to grow its revenues and diversify its customer base."

26 May Investec 1,535.00 Buy

Preliminary Results
RNS
RNS Number : 8694O
First Derivatives PLC
02 June 2015

2 June 2015

First Derivatives plc

("FD", the "Company" or the "Group")

Preliminary results for the year ended 28 February 2015



FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I), a leading provider of software and consulting services, today announces its results for the year ended 28 February 2015.



Financial Highlights

- Revenue £83.2m (2014: £69.9m) +19%

- Adjusted EBITDA £15.5m (2014: £12.5m) +24%

- Profit before tax £17.5m (2014: £7.9m) +120%

- Adjusted* profit before tax £10.8m (2014: £9.2m) +17%

- Adjusted* fully diluted EPS 38.8p (2014: 34.2p) +13%

- Full year dividend 13.5p per share (2014: 12.2p) +11%

- Net debt £15.7m (2014: £11.2m)

*Adjusted for amortisation of acquired intangibles, share based payments, profit on disposal of property, net gain on disposal of investment in associate, acquisition costs, finance translation income/charges (and associated taxation impact for EPS).



Business Highlights

- Purchase of majority stake in Kx Systems opens a range of new opportunities in Big Fast Data, strengthened by strategic acquisitions to position the Group in new vertical sectors.

- Strategic acquisition of Prelytix LLC to expand the Group's presence in the fast-growing marketing technology sector.

- Continued investment in software products with new clients for Delta Flow, Delta Stream and Delta Algo driving revenue growth of 29%.

- Further growth and strategic progress in consulting, with a total of six new Master Service Agreements helping to deliver revenue growth of 15%.

- Oversubscribed placing of new shares with new and existing institutional investors to accelerate growth.

- Further commitment during the period from Invest Northern Ireland of £3.9m to support up to 484 new jobs in Newry.



Post period-end highlights

- Strategic acquisitions of Affinity Systems and ActivateClients for a combined initial consideration of £7.1m.

- Board strengthened through the appointment of Virginia Gambale.

- Good start to new financial year with another year of strong growth expected, moderately ahead of current consensus market expectations.



Seamus Keating, Chairman of FD, commented:"This was a very successful year for FD, with the purchase of a majority stake in Kx Systems enabling the Group to broaden its strategy. The subsequent investment across the business, including three strategic acquisitions in 2015, positions FD as a leading player in Big Fast Data across multiple vertical markets. This has been achieved while maintaining a strong focus on current trading, with a strong second half performance from both our consulting and software activities enabling the Group to report record results for FY 2015 and upgrade expectations for the current financial year. We will continue to invest to maximise the growth potential of the business and view the future with confidence."

2 Jun Panmure Gordon 1,657.00 Buy
2 Jun Investec 1,535.00 Buy

First Derivatives PLC (FDP:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 1,525. Over this period, the share price is up 58.44%.

Formation of FD Labs
RNS
RNS Number : 5937Y
First Derivatives PLC
10 September 2015



10 September 2015



First Derivatives plc

("FD" or the "Company")



Formation of FD Labs



FD (AIM: FDP.L, ESM: FDP.I), a leading provider of software and consulting services, announces the formation of FD Labs, its new R&D division based in Ottawa, Canada.



Collaborating with FD's global product teams, the mission of FD Labs will be to identify, innovate and develop new software product opportunities in key emerging areas such as SaaS analytics, Fast Data visualisation and the Internet of Things. It will also focus FD's global expertise in embedded software, programming languages, Cloud/SaaS environments, User Experience and IDE technology, machine learning and predictive analytics.



FD is also pleased to announce that industry luminary Dave Thomas and his long-time collaborator Dr. Brian Barry are both joining FD and will play key roles in advancing its innovation agenda. Dave will become FD's Chief Scientist with responsibility for new product strategy, technology outreach and evangelism. Brian will become Head, FD Labs with responsibility to manage and grow the Labs.



Dave Thomas commented: "The power and elegance of kdb+ has been understood for many years in the world of high performance finance. FD now has a unique opportunity to lead the way and expand the reach of kdb+ into exciting new markets such as the Internet of Things, Cyber Security, Visual Analytics and Pharma."



Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer of FD, commented: "Industry dynamics are moving in our favour as enterprises embrace streaming analytics, which plays to the strengths of kdb+. We are excited to have two of the IT industry's most respected pioneers on our team helping us advance the development of the world's leading structured database with a feature-rich enterprise platform that makes the technology straightforward to develop and manage."

10 Sep Goodbody N/A Buy

Notice of Results and Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 5936C
First Derivatives PLC
19 October 2015





First Derivatives plc

("FD" or the "Group")



Notice of Results and Trading Update



FD (AIM: FDP.L, ESM: FDP.I), a leading provider of software and consulting services, announces trading in the first half of its financial year has been strong, with both revenue and EBITDA significantly ahead of the prior year. As a result, the Group's full year performance is expected to be in line with current market forecasts. Interim results will be published on 11 November 2015.



In addition the Group also announces that it has received $6.5m (£4.2m) net of tax in respect of a shareholding in 1010data, following that company's recent acquisition by Advance/Newhouse. The Group's shareholding arose from a license agreement for kdb which is used in 1010data's software platform which serves customers in retail, manufacturing, telecoms and financial services. It was acquired by Advance/Newhouse, an affiliate of U.S media company Advance Publications, in August 2015 for $500m. The proceeds affect the fair value of the acquisition of Kx within the balance sheet.



Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer of FD, commented: "Following the acquisition of Kx Systems in October 2014 the Group has continued to work towards maximising the opportunities this transformational deal has provided. As well as strengthening our position within capital markets we are making good progress in new markets and 1010data's use of kdb highlights the potential in sectors such as manufacturing and telecoms. We remain focused on delivering strong, profitable growth while investing in FD's future."

19 Oct Goodbody N/A Buy
19 Oct Investec 1,700.00 Buy

Best-aim-companies-2016-named

AIM company of the year
The candidates are Fevertree Drinks, software and consultancy services provider First Derivatives (FDP), document storage services provider Restore (RST) and replacement windows supplier Safestyle UK (SFE).
Safestyle and Fevertree have won the best newcomer award in the past two years and that can be an indication that they have a good chance. Safestyle recently reported strong results in a relatively tough period for the replacement windows market and it believes that it is winning market share. Strongly cash generative, Safestyle is investing in additional capacity.
Restore has successfully built up its document storage operations over the past decade (see Best use of AIM).
Software and consultancy firm First Derivatives has an impressive record of profit and dividend growth and this is reflected in the share price performance. Management is diversifying the client base away from the financial services sector by using its software in additional areas. The long-term track record could give the Northern Ireland-based First Derivatives the edge.
Best guess: First Derivatives

Half Yearly Report
RNS
RNS Number : 9280N
First Derivatives PLC
01 November 2016
 
 
1 November 2016
First Derivatives plc
("FD", the "Company" or the "Group")
Interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2016
 
FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) announces its results for the six months ended 31 August 2016.
 
Financial highlights
·    Revenue £72.4m (H1 2016: £53.8m)
+34%
·    Adjusted* EBITDA £13.6m (H1 2016: £10.8m)
+26%
·    Profit before tax £7.0m (H1 2016: £4.6m)
+52%
·    Adjusted** profit before tax £10.1m (H1 2016: £7.6m)
+33%
·    Reported diluted EPS 19.4p (H1 2016: 13.9p)
+39%
·    Adjusted** diluted EPS 29.0p (H1 2016: 23.9p)
+21%
·    Interim dividend 6.0p per share (H1 2016: 5.0p)
+20%
·    Net debt £16.3m (FY 2016: £15.1m)

 
*Adjusted for share-based payments and acquisition costs.
**Adjusted for amortisation of acquired intangible assets, share-based payments, acquisition costs, foreign currency translation income (and associated taxation impact for EPS). 
 
Business highlights
·     Strong growth across key industry segments contributing to overall growth of 34%.
·     Managed services and consulting ("consulting") revenue growth of 21% to £43.0m, driven by full year impact of increased consultant numbers and a number of managed services contract wins.
·     Software revenue growth of 60% to £29.4m, with recurring license revenue up 45% to £13.6m.
·     Further investment across the business, including a number of key strategic appointments, in response to market opportunities.
·     Marketing of software under the Kx brand well received assisting in strengthening market awareness.
·     Building momentum across the Group's activities with a strong pipeline of opportunities in multiple industry segments.
 
 
Seamus Keating, Chairman of FD, commented: "We are pleased to report another period of strong growth for the first half of the Group's financial year. We delivered on our strategy in a number of important areas; winning larger, multi-year contracts in managed services and consulting, extending the capabilities of our software and, through additional investment in sales, marketing and people, laying the foundations for further growth.
 
We have made significant progress in extending our reach beyond financial services, deploying the proven strengths of our Kx software assets. The second half has started positively and the high visibility within both consulting and software gives the Board confidence in a continued strong performance for the full year."

1 Nov
N+1 Singer
2,452.00
Buy

1 Nov
Goodbody
N/A
Buy

11:50 08/02/2017
Broker Forecast - N+1 Singer issues a broker note on First Derivatives PLC

N+1 Singer today reaffirms its buy investment rating on First Derivatives PLC (LON:FDP) and raised its price target to 2716p (from 2452p). Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

24 Oct
Berenberg
4,100.00
Buy

First Derivatives PLC (FDP:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 3,645.00. Over this period, the share price is up 84.56%.

Half Yearly Report
RNS
RNS Number : 7177V
First Derivatives PLC
07 November 2017
 
 
7 November 2017
First Derivatives plc
("FD", the "Company" or the "Group")
Interim results for the six months ended 31 August 2017
 
FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) today announces its results for the six months ended 31 August 2017. 
Financial Highlights
Revenue £87.8m (H1 2017: £72.4m)
+21%
Adjusted EBITDA* £16.1m (H1 2017: £13.6m)
+19%
Adjusted** profit before tax £11.4m (H1 2017: £10.1m)
+13%
Profit before tax*** £6.3m (H1 2017: £7.0m)
-10%
Adjusted** fully diluted EPS 34.4p (H1 2017: 29.0p)
+19%
Interim dividend 7.0p per share (H1 2017: 6.0p)
+17%
Net debt £13.1m (FY 2017: £13.5m)

Business Highlights
-      Strong growth in software revenue, up by 32% to £52.2m (H1 2017:£39.5m), with recurring software revenue up by 44% to £19.6m (H1 2017: £13.6m)
-      Strong demand and strategic progression in Managed Services and Consulting with revenue growth of 8% to £35.6m (H1 2017: £32.9m)
-      FinTech revenue up 18% to £66.8m (H1 2017: £56.7m), driven by 32% increase in recurring software revenue within our global banking client base
-      MarTech revenue up 30% to £18.3m (H1 2017: £14.1m), with growth accelerating in the second quarter following the launch of the latest version of our predictive analytics platform
-      Signed initial contracts in multiple new sectors including sensor data management, telecoms, healthcare and retail
-      Hired 386 graduates calendar year-to-date to assist in the delivery of growth across the Group, up 66% on the same period last year
-      Post period end, announced major investment in Kx to put machine learning at the heart of future R&D developments, strengthening Kx's competitive position and opening up new markets
-      Strong pipeline and positive start to the second half of the financial year, with full year financial performance expected to be slightly ahead of the Board's expectations.
*Adjusted for share based payments and acquisition costs
**Adjusted for amortisation of acquired intangibles, share based payments, acquisition costs, finance translation income/charges (and exceptional taxation for EPS)
***Includes foreign currency translation loss and deferred consideration on prior acquisitions

First Derivatives PLC (FDP:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 4,130.00. Over this period, the share price is up 94.58%.

Contract Win in Gaming
RNS
RNS Number : 3219F
First Derivatives PLC
20 February 2018

20 February 2018

First Derivatives plc
("FD" or the "Group")

Contract Win in Gaming

FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) announces that it has signed a contract with a FTSE 100 gaming company for the use of Kx technology to provide data analytics services. The contract win follows a successful proof of concept in which Kx provided operational intelligence that demonstrated a compelling return on investment versus traditional database solutions and open source alternatives. The customer is one of the world's leading sports betting and gaming operators with over four million customers globally and processes billions of transactions per day.

According to industry analysts Global Markets Insights, the retail analytics markets will surpass $13 billion by 2024. In attacking these markets, Kx will target potential customers including gaming, retail and airline and e-Commerce giants to address opportunities around customer yield, customer churn and pricing analysis.

Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer of Kx, commented: "This contract win is a powerful endorsement of our technology and we are very excited to work in partnership with this leading gaming company to help them to develop real-time insights across their activities. This win further demonstrates the flexibility of our horizontal technology which is being used across many industries in a variety of areas such as real-time analytics, Industrial IoT, cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence."

Trading update and Notice of Results
RNS
RNS Number : 9955L
First Derivatives PLC
25 April 2018

25 April 2018

First Derivatives plc
("FD" or the "Group")

Trading update and Notice of Results

FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) announces that it has continued to trade strongly in the second half of the financial year ended 28 February 2018. As a result, the Board now expects to report a financial performance slightly ahead of the current consensus forecasts of £180.2m of revenue and £32.9m of adjusted EBITDA.

The Group has also completed its analysis of the impact of the US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has resulted in a reduction in the US Federal corporate income tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent. The US tax reform is expected to benefit the Group through an ongoing reduction in the Group's effective tax rate of 4-6%, in our preliminary view.

Full year results will be reported on 22 May. A briefing for analysts will be held at 9.30am on the day at the offices of FTI Consulting, 200 Aldersgate, London EC1A 4HD.

Kx provides rapid access to unstructured data
RNS
RNS Number : 3513O
First Derivatives PLC
17 May 2018

17 May 2018

First Derivatives plc
("FD" or the "Group")

Kx provides rapid access to unstructured data

FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) announces that its Kx technology, a world leader in time-series analytics for streaming, real-time and historical data, now supports rapid access to unstructured data with the release today of kdb+ 3.6, the latest version of its database and analytics technology.

The rapid analysis of unstructured data is essential in many industries. With kdb+ 3.6, Kx has enhanced the developer's ability to manipulate vast amounts of unstructured data. In particular, the new 'anymap' capability allows developers to query unstructured data held in kdb+ much more rapidly. This makes it easier to combine structured and unstructured data within a kdb+ database and analyze them both with the record-breaking speed that kdb+ is known for.

Kdb+ 3.6 also has a number of new features that make it even faster including: (i) JSON support as a primitive feature in the language, which results in a speedup of at least 10x; (ii) adding a new compression algorithm to the existing list and (iii) improvements to speed of GUID lookups. To improve the efficiency and flexibility of distributed queries, kdb+ 3.6 has also added deferred response to synchronized messages.

The latest version enhances Kx's recently-launched on-demand offering, a subscription-based version of kdb+ with a flexible pricing model that expands the availability and appeal of kdb+ for a much wider universe of use-cases. Kdb+ on-demand makes massively-parallel application architectures more accessible to developers, putting more compute power at their fingertips. Kdb+ 3.6 builds on that by expanding the tool kit available for those programmers who are building ever larger systems.

Simon Garland, Chief Customer Officer of Kx, commented: "Anymap makes it very easy for developers to work with both structured and unstructured data. Version 3.6, combined with our on-demand offering, makes it easier than ever for developers to deploy many more cores for short periods of intensive computation and only pay for what they use. Together they give technologists access to new application design and architecture possibilities. These capabilities continue Kx's tradition of providing simple, elegant solutions to large and complex data problems."

Preliminary results for the year ended 28 Feb 2018
RNS
RNS Number : 8036O
First Derivatives PLC
22 May 2018

22 May 2018
First Derivatives plc
("FD", the "Company" or the "Group")
Preliminary results for the year ended 28 February 2018
FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) today announces its results for the year ended 28 February 2018.
Financial Highlights
Revenue £186.0m (2017: £151.7m)
+23%
Adjusted EBITDA* £34.1m (2017: £28.8m)
+19%
Profit before tax £12.1m (2017: £12.5m)
-3%
Adjusted** profit after tax £19.5m (2017: £16.1m)
+21%
Adjusted** fully diluted EPS 72.2p (2017: 61.3p)
+18%
Full year dividend 24.0p per share (2017: 20.0p)
+20%
Net debt £16.2m (2017: £13.5m)

*Adjusted for share-based payments and acquisition costs
**Adjusted for amortisation of acquired intangibles, share-based payments, acquisition costs, foreign currency translation effect, share of loss of associate and exceptional taxation

Business Highlights
- Strong growth in software revenue, up 27% as a result of new contract wins and continued penetration of the existing customer base
- Strategic progression in our managed services and consulting activities resulting in revenue growth of 17%
- The implementation and ongoing support of a third-party system for a New York-based bank, representing one of the largest contracts in our history
- FinTech revenue up 22% to £142.9m (2017: £117.4m), driven by growth in recurring software revenue and an expansion of services provided to clients
- MarTech revenue up 24% to £38.2m (2017: £30.7m), driven by growth in subscriptions for our Marketing Cloud platform, powered by our Kx technology
- High-profile client wins including a Fortune 500 manufacturing company, a FTSE 100 gaming company and Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing, leading to inbound interest across a range of markets
- Continued investment across the Group, including machine learning and AI initiatives, to further penetrate our addressable market in software
- Boosted capabilities in telco, a key target market, through the acquisition of Telconomics
- Positive start to the current financial year, with a healthy pipeline of new business opportunities.

Seamus Keating, Chairman of FD, commented: "This has been another year where we have combined organic growth with selective investment in the business to realise the enormous market opportunity available to First Derivatives. Prompted by strong demand from our clients, we have continued to penetrate our markets enabling us to deliver our 21st consecutive year of double-digit revenue growth.

Our ability to capitalise on the investments we have made and the scale of our addressable software market provides us the potential for continued strong growth in future years. While we will continue to invest to stay at the forefront of our field, much has already been done to support our ambitious plans and our current structure is sufficient to achieve significant growth. Recognising that success always requires focus and effort, we nevertheless look to the future with confidence."

08:00 27/06/2018
Broker Forecast - Liberum Capital issues a broker note on First Derivatives PLC
Liberum Capital today initiates coverage of First Derivatives PLC (LON:FDP) with a buy investment rating and price target of 5300p. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com Broker Forecasts data provided by www.sharesmagazine.co.uk

FD to buy out minority Kx Systems shareholders
RNS
RNS Number : 1637T
First Derivatives PLC
02 July 2018

2 July 2018

First Derivatives plc
("FD" or the "Group")

FD to buy out minority Kx Systems shareholders

FD (AIM:FDP.L, ESM:FDP.I) announces that it has reached agreement with the minority shareholders of Kx Systems, Inc. ("Kx Systems"), a subsidiary of the Group, regarding the acquisition by FD of their entire remaining shareholding (the 'Transaction'). Upon completion of the Transaction, which is expected to take place on or before 29 June 2019, FD will own 100% of the issued share capital of Kx Systems.

Terms of the Transaction

FD has agreed to acquire the remaining 600,022 Kx Systems shares that it doesn't already own from the minority shareholders, namely Arthur Whitney and Janet Lustgarten, who are co-founders and current directors of Kx Systems, and their associated persons. The aggregate consideration is $53.8m in cash, to be financed from FD's available facilities. The terms of the transaction are in line with those agreed between FD and the minority shareholders in October 2014, and include a payment of $12.0m in lieu of anticipated dividends to the minority shareholders for the period up to 31 October 2021.

Brian Conlon, Chief Executive Officer of FD, commented: "Since we acquired a controlling interest in Kx Systems in October 2014 we have invested heavily across our business to target multiple new industries. The agreement to acquire 100% of Kx Systems provides certainty for the Group and its shareholders as we seek to realise the considerable potential we see for further growth."

First Derivatives wins European energy market contract
StockMarketWire.com
First Derivatives said Monday it had secured, together with its partner CGI, a contract to deliver a next-generation electricity information exchange for Fingrid, the transmission system operator for Finland.

Under the deal, First Derivatives' Kx technology would provide key functionality for the new system, known as Datahub, and would be integrated with CGI's Central Markets System (CMS) to deliver a centralised information exchange for retail markets.

Datahub would simplify, speed up and enhance the efficiency of the data exchange required by the retail electricity market, First Derivatives said.

At 10:19am: (LON:FDP) First Derivatives PLC share price was +45p at 4245p


Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

16 Jul
Shore Capital
4,200.00
Buy
16 Jul
Liberum Capital
5,300.00
Buy

Interim results

Business Highlights
· Strong growth in software revenue, up 21%, with license revenue up 39% driven by increased demand for Kx technology across our client base
· Continued strong demand within our managed services and consulting activities resulting in revenue growth of 19%
· Accelerated investment across the business in R&D, sales and marketing and software delivery in response to growth in the Kx sales pipeline across multiple industries
· FinTech revenue up 24% to £82.7m (H1 2018: £66.8m), driven by growth in software revenue and an expansion of services provided to clients
· MarTech revenue up 8% to £19.8m (H1 2018: £18.3m), driven by 42% growth in subscriptions for our Marketing Cloud platform, powered by Kx
· Line of business gross profit reported for the first time, with the highlights being an increase in software license gross margin to 84% (H1 2018: 76%) and a 31% increase in total software gross profit to £34.7m (H1 2018: £26.6m)
· High-profile new client wins including Fingrid, the Canadian Securities Administrators and, post the period end, BISTel and Survalent
· Increased our addressable market following the launch of kdb+ 3.6, which supports rapid analysis of unstructured data, and integration with Python, the most widely used AI programming language
· Agreement to acquire the minority shareholdings in Kx Systems, taking 100% ownership by end June 2019