Sage says profit rises 9 percent

LONDON (Reuters) - Sage Group (SGE.L), Britain's biggest software firm, said on Thursday underlying first-half pretax profit rose 9 percent and said it was confident for the full year.

The Newcastle-based company, which sells business management software and services to small and medium-sized businesses around the world, said adjusted pretax profit for the six months ended March 31 rose to 138 million pounds.

That was above the 130.17 million pound average forecast from six analysts in a Reuters Estimates poll and compared with 126.3 million pounds a year earlier.

(Reporting by Erica Billingham; Editing by Louise Ireland)