LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Language, content and intellectual property service provider RWS Holdings reported a "robust" first half on Thursday, with revenue rising 9% to £357.3m.

The AIM-traded firm said adjusted profit before tax was 20% higher year-on-year for the six months ended 31 March at £60.7m, while adjusted basic earnings per share were 13% higher at 11.9p.

Cash conversion rocketed by 4,100 basis points to 120%, while net cash at period end was £7.14m lower than the same time last year, at £38.2m.

The board declared an interim dividend of 2.25p per share, up 13% on the 2p distribution it made at the half-year last year.

Looking ahead, RWS reported "encouraging" initial signs of organic growth in its software division, with an "encouraging increase" in the proportion of new software-as-a-service revenues to 34% from 24% year-on-year.

That, the board said, would improve revenue predictability, notwithstanding the short-term transitional impact.

The company said its full-year outlook remained in line with its latest guidance and current market expectations, and continuing confidence in the medium- to long-term drivers of demand for its products and services.

"We have delivered a robust performance in the first half, with some good progress made in defining our medium-term strategy and growth plans, whilst making the organisational changes that will enable delivery," said chief executive officer Ian El-Mokadem.

"We successfully launched our new purpose and values to more than 7,500 colleagues, and we are seeing an increasingly unified culture across the group.

"We continued to build long-term relationships with our clients, with a wide range of contract renewals and service extensions across our divisions."

El-Mokadem said the company won a number of new clients, with the major account and 'GoGlobal' account segments in language services both having a "strong" first half.

"Technology-enabled service solutions continue to be a differentiator and our e-learning proposition has begun to gain some traction.

"In regulated industries we achieved further penetration in the high growth linguistic validation segment.

"We have seen good growth in technology product revenues compared with the prior period, including an increased uptake of software-as-a-service solutions, ahead of our expectations and the prior period."

RWS was making planned investments in the core technology and artificial intelligence products that it announced at our capital markets day, Ian El-Mokadem explained, which he said would enable the firm to "capitalise on the benefits" of offering a "unique blend" of services and technology, at scale, to meet the evolving needs of clients.

"We recognise that there are risks across the global economy, however we remain confident that we will continue to make good progress in the development of the group in the second half, delivering good margin improvement in the current financial year, and that we are in a strong position to deliver on our medium-term growth strategy."

At 1234 BST, shares in RWS Holdings were down 0.63% at 380.4p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.

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