Takeover Eats Into GVC Profits; partypoker Grows For First Time in Five Years
Earlier this week, GVC Holdings published its full-year financial figures for 2015, which revealed that its Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciations and Amortization (EBITDA) had increased 10 percent to a record €54.1 million.
EBITDA is a popular indicator preferred by many companies, as it can be used to analyze and compare the profitability between companies and industries as it eliminates the effects of accounting and financing decisions, therefore painting a picture of a company's health.
However, profit before taxation fell 38 percent to €25.5 million, which was mostly down the exceptional costs associated with the reverse takeover of bwin.party digital entertainment plc, which weighed in at some €23 million. Once tax is taken into account, the combined group posted a loss of €12.4 million.
Despite the loss, Kenneth Alexander, the Chief Executive of GVC Holdings, was delighted with the performance of the company, particularly the fact EBITDA and dividends increased for the firth consecutive year.
“GVC has had a momentous year. Not only has the company seen a fifth consecutive year of revenue and clean Ebitda growth but the completion of the Bwin acquisition in early 2016 affords us an opportunity to take the group to the next level.”
“GVC has never been in a stronger position going forward. The enlarged Group is already enjoying encouraging trading, resulting from our unique mix of diversified products and strong brands. There is much work to be done, nevertheless, with GVC brands and Bwin brands growing, together with synergy benefits, we look forward with confidence to another successful year.”
2016 Trading Update
GVC also gave investors an update into its first-quarter figures for 2016 and they make interesting reading. Although exact figures for partypoker were not mentioned, GVC did note that partypoker has shown its first year on year quarterly growth for five years, which is extremely impressive considering the online poker market has been constricting.
There have been many changes at partypoker in recent months, including the launch of its version of jackpot sit & go tournaments, known as Sit & Go Hero, the addition of four-time world champion boxer Carl Froch and Patrick Leonard as brand ambassadors, the partnership with Dusk Till Dawn, and a complete overhaul of its tournament schedule, all of which have resonated well with its customers.
The figures show that the Net Gaming Revenue for the total group has increased 180 percent in Q1-2016 to €167.7 million following the acquisition of bwin.party.
Shares in GVC Holdings soared from 523.50 pence to 547.50 pence once the results were in the public domain.
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