Avaloq, the Swiss maker of banking software, has had sluggish sales growth in the first half of the year. But the company is very satisfied nevertheless.
Avaloq, which provides software and services to the banking industry, has had a pretax profit of 36.3 million Swiss francs in the first six months of the year, 257 percent more than in the same period of 2016, the company said in a statement today.
The comparison is however hardly comparable to last year’s, because it presented detailed half-year figures for the first time.
Investments Affected 2016
Sales added 3 percent to 253.1 million francs. Operating costs were down 8 percent. The margin increased as a consequence, adding 10.2 percentage points to 14.3 percent. The liquidity amounted to 62 million francs.
The figures show that Avaloq wasn’t doing too well a year ago, after the company had invested substantially, developing and taking over outsourcing centers.
Pay Off Time
Arizon, the construction of a new IT platform for Raiffeisen Switzerland also required significant resources. Having installed a number of large software packages, the company now seems in better shape again. Warburg Pincus, the U.S. investor, in March bought a 35 percent stake in Avaloq.
Avaloq and Warburg Pincus agree to further build the company with a view to possibly launch it on the Swiss stock exchange further down the line. Avaloq is in a good position to use the growth opportunities available, said CEO Francisco Fernandez.
