Financial software and technology provider GBST Holdings yesterday announced a 31 per cent rise in interim profit after tax to $5 million, with EBITDA up 67 per cent to $9.1 million.Net operating cashflow increased 39 per cent to $5.6 million, earnings per share was up 19 per cent to 10.3 cents per share, with a fully franked dividend of 5.5 cents declared, up 0.5 cents on the corresponding period.Potentially of concern, trade debtors doubled for the period to $7 million, and inventory 'work in progress' is $3.4 million compared to zero in June, with research and development costs up $1.4 million to $2.9 million.The interim report outlines R&D expenditure in broker services to increase the scale of the shares' platform.GBST specialises in market access and transaction solutions for capital market participants including banks, clearing houses, custodians, fund managers, margin lenders and institutional and retail stockbrokers, processing around $150 billion in ASX trades each month.In August 2007 GBST acquired InfoComp Pty Ltd, ICP Holdings Pty Ltd and its subsidiaries for a cash payment of $36.6 million and the issue of approximately 4.9 million shares.The cash component was funded by a $20 million term loan facility from Suncorp, and existing cash reserves.