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

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."