GGRAsia – 2021 hard but business up 2H fiscal: Ainsworth chairman

2021 hard but business up 2H fiscal: Ainsworth chairman

Oct 27, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Danny Gladstone, chairman of Australia-based slot machine maker Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd, said in the group’s annual report for fiscal year ending June 30, that 2021 had “clearly been a challenging year for our customers, communities, and colleagues”.

In late August, Ainsworth reported a full-year loss after tax of AUD53.4 million (US$40.2 million), up from a loss of AUD50.1 million a year earlier.

Mr Gladstone noted in the annual report filed on Wednesday to the Australian Securities Exchange, there had been improvement in the second half of the financial year. He stated: “I am proud of the way Ainsworth has supported our teams through these anxious times and delivered a strong recovery in results in the second half of the financial year.”

Mr Gladstone further stated: “With progress in vaccine roll outs and the progressive reopening of customers’ venues across most markets, we look forward to further improvement in trading conditions in financial year 2022.”

The chairman also noted the thanks of Ainsworth’s board for the work of Lawrence Levy, who had resigned as group chief executive in September for “personal reasons”.

Harald Neumann, Ainsworth’s new chief executive, said in his message in the annual report, that the company had “an optimistic outlook” for the current fiscal year.

“Our North American business is performing well. Markets have effectively reopened over there, with social distancing,” stated the CEO, adding that the firm was “pursuing new growth opportunities” for its Historical Horse Racing products in new jurisdictions. The company is also leveraging on last year’s acquisition of U.S.-based MTD Gaming Inc, in order “to drive new sales.”

During financial year 2021, international markets contributed AUD120.5 million in revenue to Ainsworth Game, representing 76 percent of the group’s total revenue for the period, the firm’s audited annual report affirmed on Wednesday.

Revenue from Asia specifically, rose a third year-on-year. Such revenue for the year ended June 30, for major products and service lines, was AUD777,000. That was a 32.8-percent improvement on the AUD585,000 achieved in Asia in financial year 2020.

Austria-based gaming equipment firm Novomatic AG, the majority shareholder of Ainsworth, uses the latter as non-exclusive distributor of Novomatic’s own-brand products in the Asia-Pacific region.