Currency translates into growth for SDL

(By Anthony Miller – Tuesday 4th August 2009 8:45am). SDL, the self-styled “world leader in global information management” – or as they are probably better known, a real leader in translation software and services, would have had a pretty bleak first half were it not for the weak pound (see here). Against headline 10% revenue growth (to £83m), organic revenues declined 11% at constant currency (ccy), with translation services (85% of SDL’s business) mostly affected by the economic downturn, down 14% ccy. Across the business, operating margins expanded 1.7 pts to 13.8% (17.1% ‘adjusted’, +1.4 pts). Founding CEO Mark Lancaster expects "challenging" trading conditions for the rest of the year.

Our intrepid software analyst, Phil Carnelley, is on his way to the results briefing and will bring you more later. Meanwhile, TechMarketView subscription service clients can remind themselves of the challenges we see ahead for SDL in our recent AnalystViews note, SDL – Lost in Translation?