Casino slot machine maker and digital games provider Aristocrat Leisure Ltd reported on Wednesday a net profit after tax and before amortisation of acquired intangibles (NPATA) of AUD1.05 billion (US$705.8 million) for its fiscal-year ended September 30. That was up 13.9 percent in year-on-year terms.
The result was on revenues that rose 17.7 percent year-on-year, to just above AUD5.57 billion, said the Australia-listed company.
The firm said the fiscal-year results reflected its “sustained investment in top-performing product portfolios, differentiating capabilities, increased operational diversification and business resilience.”
The company stated that judged on a normalised basis – i.e., excluding the impact of certain significant items – NPATA for the 12-month period was nearly AUD1.10 billion, an increase of 27.1 percent in year-on-year terms.
Aristocrat said normalised earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at AUD1.85 billion, representing growth of about 20.0 percent from a year earlier.
The firm stated that its balance sheet “remained exceptionally strong,” with about AUD3.8 billion in available liquidity as at 30 September, “to support committed and future investments”. That had also enabled debt repayments aggregating US$250 million, distribution of dividends, and AUD340 million in on-market share buybacks.
The company is to pay a dividend amounting to AUD171.5 million, equal to a final fully-franked dividend of AUD0.26 per share. Total dividends in respect to its financial year to September 30 amount to AUD0.52 per share, or about AUD345.3 million, an increase of 27 percent on the prior year.
Aristocrat’s chief executive and managing director, Trevor Croker, said in comments included in Wednesday’s statement, that the firm’s performance “underlines the ongoing implementation” of its growth strategy, and “highlights the strength” of its “post-Covid recovery” and “ability to execute in a challenging environment”.
Referring first to the land-based business unit and second to a social mobile games unit, the CEO stated: “Strong performance in Aristocrat Gaming more than offset headwinds in the Pixel United business, again highlighting the increasing diversification and resilience of our group.”
Mr Croker also said the firm “made further progress” in its “‘build and buy’ strategy” to scale in the online real money gaming (RMG) segment, including the launch of the group’s RMG division, called ‘Anaxi’.
He added: “While we are focusing first on the North American iGaming vertical, we ultimately aim to be the leading gaming platform within the global online RMG industry.”
