Sage raises outlook after cloud drives first-half growth

LONDON: Sage, a British provider of software to small and medium-sized companies, upgraded its full-year organic recurring revenue growth forecast to around 11% on Wednesday after it saw a strong uptake of cloud services in its first half.

It had previously expected growth to be above the 9.4% level achieved in its last financial year.

Shares in Sage, which provides software for accounting, payroll and other business processes, rose 4% to a 16-month high of 858 pence on Wednesday, topping the FTSE 100 index.

Chief Executive Steve Hare said growth was coming from the cloud services it has developed in recent years, with customers in North America, Britain and Europe and Africa contributing.