* Market for new customers at "complete standstill"
* Sees 100 percent dividend pay-out of net profit over 2009
* Shares down 0.24 pct at 16.86 euros, outperforming index (Adds CEO comments, detail, background)
By Harro ten Wolde
DELFT, Netherlands June 23 (Reuters) - Dutch software firm Exact Holding said on Thursday the market it is active in was still unpredictable and that the worst was not over yet, as its customers seek to preserve cash.
"I still see a lot of nervousness ... About 15 percent of our revenue comes from new customers, customers who have never been with us before. This has come to a complete standstill," Exact Chief Executive Rajesh Patel told Reuters in an interview.
Exact, founded in 1984, is a provider of business software and made about 43 percent of its 2008 total revenue of 265.4 million euros ($367.8 million) in the Netherlands.
About 90 percent of its Dutch sales came from small and medium-sized companies in the Netherlands.
Asked how he judged the market Patel said: "It's unpredictable, cloudy and the worst is not over yet".
"Customers who are looking to buy new software applications, they are very, very resistant, because they want to preserve cash, they have budget holes, they have no outlook in terms of future."
Exact's shares were down 0.24 percent at 16.86 euros by 1245 GMT, outperforming a 1.1 percent decline in the Amsterdam smallcap index .ASCX). It had a market cap of a little over 400 million euros ($554.3 million).
The company, which is debt free and had 44.7 million euros in cash at the end of 2008, paid a 2008 dividend of 1.56 euros per share, representing a 100 percent payout of net income.
Exact has a policy of paying out 100 percent of net income, which can be changed in case of a significant acquisition, but Patel said he had no such plans at the moment.
"I would not want to significantly change the risk profile of the company at the moment with significant acquisitions... The (economic) outlook has to become a little bit more clear."
Asked whether it was fair to assume that Exact would pay dividend at 100 percent ratio over 2009, Patel said: "Yes". (Editing by Rupert Winchester) ($1=.7216 Euro)