British financial software provider Misys Plc reported a 23 percent rise in pretax profit for the first half largely from net finance income, reflecting significant lower debt compared with last year.

The company, which operates in four segments: Allscripts, Banking, Treasury and Capital Markets (TCM), and Open Source, said its medium-term financial targets, which were updated with the Sophis acquisition, are unchanged.

For the half-year ended November 30, the company posted a pretax profit of 19 million pounds from 15 million pounds a year-ago.

Revenue of 161 million pounds was flat compared with the prior year due to the impact on licence revenues of delays to a small number of larger potential sales, the company said.

Order intake increased 3 percent to 81.2 million pounds despite the sales delays experienced, reflecting a pipeline of expanded support services, it said.

In November 2010, Misys announced the proposed acquisition of Sophis SCA for an enterprise value of 370 million pounds. At that time, the company said the medium-term revenue growth target range remains at 5 percent to 8 percent and adjusted operating margin target range moved up to 20 percent to 23 percent.

Shares of Misys closed Monday's trading at 332.40 pence on the London Stock Exchange.

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