(Sharecast News) - Shares in Cerillion said on Monday that it expects to hit market forecasts this year, but shares dropped sharply after the B2B software group reported a fall in interim profits.
Adjusted EBITDA was down 9% year-on-year at £10m in the six months to 31 March, with revenues falling 7% to £20.9m and adjusted EBITDA margins slipping to 47.7% from 48.9%.

The company, which provides billing, charging and customer relationship management software, said the weaker top line was mainly a result of the weighing of expected licence renewals and extensions shifting into the second half, compared to last year when the bulk of theses occurred in the first half.

Nevertheless, there were bright spots in the first half, such as the signing of a major new five-year contract worth $11.4m in January with a major national telecoms operator in Armenia, and a £5.4m term renewal agreed in March with a major European customer.

Since the end of the first half, Cerillion also signed one of its largest deals to date. "This project is to facilitate the migration of an existing European customer's newly acquired customer base onto our product and platform. It further validates our offering as the customer chose to move its new customer base to Cerillion's SaaS-based platform instead of remaining with the incumbent tier-1 provider," said chief executive Louis Hall.

Cerillion said its back-order book was up 7% at £50.2m by the period-end, and up 23% as of the end of April to £56.2m.

"Based on new orders achieved to date and current trading, we believe Cerillion is well-placed to deliver market expectations for the full year and beyond. We continue to view long-term prospects with confidence," Hall said.

Despite the upbeat outlook,shares were down nearly 7% at 1,714.5p by 1008 BST, having gained more than 20% over the past month.

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