Casino slot machine maker and digital games provider Aristocrat Leisure Ltd reported on Thursday revenues of nearly AUD4.74 billion (US$3.44 billion) for its fiscal-year ended September 30, up 14.4 percent from the prior-year period. The company said such growth was driven by its gaming operations and the mobile games segment, known as Pixel United.
The company said its normalised net profit after tax and before amortisation of acquired intangibles (NPATA) for the 12-month period was AUD864.7 million, an increase of 81.4 percent in year-on-year terms.
The Australia-listed company is to pay a dividend amounting to AUD174 million, equal to AUD0.26 per fully-paid ordinary share, for its fiscal-year ended September 30.
Aristocrat said in its statement that normalised earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at AUD1.54 billion, representing growth of about 43.0 percent from a year earlier.
The firm stated that its operating cash flow “remained strong” at AUD1.33 billion for the period, up 30.4 percent from a year ago, “reflecting strong business performance and underlying cash flow generation capability.”
Aristocrat’s chief executive and managing director, Trevor Croker, said in comments included in the company’s Thursday statement, that the results “demonstrate the successful execution” of the group’s growth strategy.
“Our progress is reflected in the share growth and margin expansion achieved across key segments during the year, with industry-leading games and products and further diversification across our Aristocrat Gaming and Pixel United portfolios,” he added.
On Thursday, Mr Croker said Aristocrat still expected to close in 2022 its AUD3.9 billion bid for London-listed Playtech Plc. That was despite a possible bidding war for Playtech, a leading gaming content provider for the online and land-based casino industries.
“Aristocrat’s recommended offer to acquire Playtech Plc … is another demonstration of our appetite to accelerate the implementation of our strategy through accretive mergers and acquisitions, in particular where it can deliver new capabilities and access to significant growth opportunities,” stated the Aristocrat CEO. “We are focused on achieving necessary approvals, and continue to expect the acquisition to complete in the second quarter of calendar year 2022,” he added.
Playtech has been approached by Gopher Investments, which has just under 5 percent of Playtech. Gopher was “seeking access to certain due diligence information,” while eventually considering a competing bid or Playtech.
Mr Croker said additionally that Aristocrat “enters fiscal 2022 with excellent operational momentum, business resilience, and an appetite to continue to invest organically and through merger and acquisition” to accelerate its growth strategy.
