Specialist financial software company First Derivatives saw pretax profits rise 15 per cent to £6.5 million (€7.5 million) in the year to the end of February, as revenues jumped 44 per cent to £36.74 million.

The Newry-based company said software sales rose by more than 100 per cent to reach £12.5 million and it now had revenue flowing from more than 40 software clients.

However, consultancy sales remained the mainstay of its revenue base, increasing 25 per cent to £24.2 million.

Chairman David Anderson said the company had made a strong start to the year and expected to be able to report further progress in the year to February 2012.