GGRAsia – China lottery supplier DJI Holdings narrows first-half loss

China lottery supplier DJI Holdings narrows first-half loss

Sep 26, 2014 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

DJI Holdings Plc, a U.K.-based licensed distributor and promoter of sports and welfare lottery products to the Chinese mainland market, posted a loss of £2.3 million (US$3.8 million) for the first six months of 2014, an improvement of 38 percent from a year earlier.

“Increasing revenues and stable costs have led to continuous reduction of the monthly losses through the first half of 2014,” the company said in a filing.

The company started trading on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on July 24. It raised £15 million via a placing of new ordinary shares and the issuance of convertible loan notes in July.

Gross sales and net revenue in the first half amounted to approximately £134.2 million and £3.4 million respectively, DJI Holdings said. About £2.7 million of the net revenues came in the second quarter of the year, it added.

“Our business has successfully achieved profitability for the first time as a result of the significant growth in our digital business. It has been pleasing to see this momentum in growth and profitability continue into the third quarter,” Darren Mercer, chief executive of DJI Holdings, said in the statement.

Gross sales spiked in June due to the FIFA Football World Cup, pushing the company to its first month of profitability. The month-long tournament helped spur an 83 percent year-on-year rise in market-wide sales of China’s sports lottery in June, according to official data.

“Sales maintained momentum after the World Cup as new players continued to participate in weekly, daily and high frequency draw games in July and August,” DJI Holdings said.

Mainland China’s lottery sales reached RMB247.2 billion (US$40.3 billion) in the first eight months of 2014, up 24.4 percent year-on-year, according to figures from the country’s Ministry of Finance.