Britain's Aveva reports lower profit after aborted merger

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Aveva, the British software company that called off a merger with France's Schneider Electric (EUREX: SND1.EX - news) in December, reported a 18 percent drop in full-year profit, reflecting tough conditions for its customers in South America and South Korea.

The company, whose software is used to design ships, oil rigs and power plant, reported adjusted pretax profit of 51.2 million pounds ($74.2 million) for the year to end-March on revenue down 3 percent to 201.5 million pounds.

The company said on Tuesday it had additional one-off costs of 15.2 million pounds related to a restructuring and fees for the aborted deal.

Analysts at Numis said Aveva's results showed the robustness of a business that had performed in line with expectations despite the distraction of the merger and challenging end markets.

($1 = 0.6904 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Jason Neely)