Atlantic Global makes crossing back into black

The Cleckheaton-based group, which designs and sells business and resource management software applications, said it has returned to profit compared to a pre-tax loss of 200,000 during the same period last year.

At the end of June, the group had net cash balances of approximately 2.096m compared with around 2.032m at the end of 2009.

The group's managing director Eugene Blaine said the pipeline of new business opportunities is satisfactory and progress has been made on contracts arising from partnership opportunities.

"The directors believe that Atlantic Global will continue to produce an improved performance in the second half of 2010," he said in a trading update.

In March the group posted an annual loss as it struggled in a "challenging" trading environment, with customers slashing IT spending as they cut costs.

But the group recovered in the second half and has a strong pipeline of new business.

"A lot of our larger customers were shedding staff last year and you do not buy resource management software when you are shedding staff, " said Mr Blaine.

The group recently invested its largest ever sum in research and development – 403,000 – to improve its offering.

Atlantic Global will announce its interim results for the six months to June 30 on September 28.

Last night the company's shares closed up 16 per cent, a rise of 2p to 14.5p following the trading update.