In the first six months of the current fiscal year, Group sales climbed to €234.8 million, an increase over the prior year of €24.0 million, or 11 percent (currency-adjusted: 10 percent). EBIT increased by 15 percent to €51.2 million (previous year: €44.4 million).

Accelerated growth in the licensing business
In the maintenance business, revenue grew by 6 percent to €94.1 million. Licensing revenues increased by a much greater margin: In the ETS and crossvision business lines, we generated revenues from licensing new software totaling €74.7 million. This represents an increase over the first half of 2005 of 26 percent (currency-adjusted: 25 percent). The strong momentum in the licensing business is especially evident when comparing the growth rates: In the first half of 2006, our licensing revenues grew twice the amount as in the same period of the prior year. Sales generated from professional services grew by 5 percent to €64.9 million in the first half year. Among other things, this shift in revenue towards the high-margin licensing business was attributable to our focus on strategic projects and the ensuing reduction of low-margin projects and projects not based on Software AG products. In addition, the use of the new crossvision suite entails less professional services than the implementation of single products.

Focus on proprietary products with strong market positions
Within the licensing business, the crossvision business line increased sales from €11.2 million to €16.5 million. Sales in the Enterprise Transaction Systems (ETS) business line amounted to €57.0 million after €43.9 million in the first half of 2005. This licensing revenue related exclusively to proprietary products. In order to focus our marketing resources on Software AG products, we have been steadily reducing sales of third-party products. As a result, sales generated from third-party products were deliberately reduced from €2.5 million to €0.9 million.