Clarity Commerce Solutions

Ticketing, retail, leisure and hospitality software specialist Clarity Commerce Solutions envisages restoring the dividend after lifting profits 67% to £1.8m.

The Basingstoke-based company increased turnover 8% to £19m in the year to March, with £6m generated in the USA and £3.3m in continental Europe. Chief executive officer Ken Smith says controlling overheads enabled AIM-quoted Clarity to increase profit margins and cites key new business wins, including fast food group Pret A Manger, worth £500,000 a year, and theme park group Merlin Entertainments, which has chipped in £108,000 since being signed up in February and is expected to contribute £4m in a full year.

The company, which says a rebranding process started last year has proved to be ‘a major success’, is on the lookout for strategic, ‘bolt-on’ acquisitions turning over between £5 and £10m a year, says Smith. In May, Clarity agreed to pay up to £150,000 to buy back Cyntergy, provider of multi-lingual service desks to hotels, shops and telecom operators, a company it had previously sold off for £500,000.

Having raised £2.7m at 40p in September and closed the financial year with £2.3m cash, the company should soon be in a position to resume dividend payments, argues Smith. He says Clarity is canvassing shareholders about a payout ‘in about a year’s time’.

Analysts see the company lifting pre-tax profits to £2.5m this year, with £3.7m on the cards for 2011-12. Recommended by Growth Company Investor at 13.5p at the end of 2008 and again at 35.5p last year, the shares have reached 38.5p and have scope for further improvement.