Aveva sales and pretax up

LONDON (Reuters) - Engineering software group Aveva (AVV.L) posted slightly better than expected full-year revenue and pretax profit, reflecting growth in the marine, oil and gas and power markets, but said trading was becoming more difficult.

Aveva, whose three-dimensional software is used to design ships, oil rigs, nuclear power stations and chemical plants, warned in April that customers were delaying projects and revenue would fall in the current year.

"Our concerns are largely short-term based around potentially the oil price and the availability of funding," Chief Executive Richard Longdon said in a call with reporters on Tuesday.

"Although talking to the customers that situation certainly hasn't got any worse since 16 April, and if anything it's improved slightly."

Aveva's shares, which fell more than 10 percent on the April announcement, were up 4.6 percent at 605.5 pence by 10:53 a.m. Analysts said there were no real surprises in the numbers and the negative outlook was already included in 2010 forecasts.

"Overall estimates are relatively conservative and with signs of improvement in shipping and oil end markets, there may be upside to estimates as the year progresses," Jefferies International analyst Milan Radia said in a research note.

He forecast revenue would fall 13 percent in the current year to 139.0 million pounds.

For the year to end-March Aveva posted a 29 percent rise in revenue to 164.0 million pounds and a 31 percent rise in adjusted pretax profit to 62.6 million.

Analysts had expected revenue of 159.5 million pounds and adjusted pretax profit of 61.9 million pounds, according to a company-supplied consensus of 17 analysts.

Aveva said the economic slowdown and the lower oil price and shipping rates were causing some projects to be postponed and cancelled, but its restructuring programme would help it trade through the difficult environment.

It forecast in April that software licence fees would fall 30-40 percent in the current year.

The company has cut 10 percent of its workforce, or around 80 jobs, to save about 5 million pounds a year, with a one-off exceptional cost of 3.5 million pounds.

Longdon said the marine market, which accounts for about a third of sales, remained difficult but its customers were forecasting an upturn from 2011.

"The smaller yards are seeing a lack of orders and they will suffer, although the larger ones tend to have extremely long orderbooks and don't show that much sign of distress, although we are taking a very cautious view of funding for next year," he said.

The oil and gas sector was looking more stable as the oil price steadied, he said, although there was some near-term uncertainty.

"As far as we can see, capex plans look similar to last year," he said. "Offshore, which is our strongest area, appears to be doing rather well."

Power was still an extremely strong sector, he said, with continued demand from EDF (EDF.PA) and Areva (CEPFi.PA) in nuclear and Alstom (ALSO.PA) in fossil fuels.

The group, which had 126.2 million pounds of net cash at year-end, said it would pay a final dividend of 6.5 pence, 30 percent higher than the pay-out a year ago.

(Editing by Victoria Bryan and Jon Loades-Carter)