GGRAsia – Novomatic halves size of executive board, names new CFO

Novomatic halves size of executive board, names new CFO

Sep 06, 2019 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Austrian gaming technology supplier Novomatic AG says it has made several changes to the firm’s executive and supervisory boards. The size of the executive board has been halved, to three members; and the company has appointed Johannes Gratzl as its new chief financial officer. The developments were mentioned in a Thursday press release.

Mr Gratzl was until recently Novomatic’s head of group treasury. He replaces Peter Stein in the CFO role. The latter has left the firm “by mutual consent,” said Novomatic.

Harald Neumann remains as chairman and chief executive of Novomatic, and Ryszard Presch continues to be the group’s chief operating officer.

In Thursday’s announcement, Novomatic said that Thomas Graf would no longer serve as the company’s chief technology officer. Mr Graf is CEO of the Greentube Group, a developer and supplier of software for Internet and mobile gaming that is a subsidiary of Novomatic. The executive “will assume responsibility for the promising online gaming market,” according to the release.

Bartholomäus Czapkiewicz, previously Novomatic’s chief systems officer, will no longer serve on the firm’s executive board but will “continue to be responsible for this area as an authorised signatory”.

Christian Widhalm, who until now was Novomatic’s chief investment officer, has resigned from his position on the executive board “for health reasons and will continue to be available to the company in an advisory capacity,” added the group.

The number of members on Novomatic’s supervisory board was cut to three from five. Remaining members are Bernd Oswald as chairman; Martina Flitsch as deputy chairwoman; and Robert Hofians. The two members leaving the board were Martina Kurz and Barbara Feldmann, according to Thursday’s statement.

Novomatic explained in the release that it had been pursuing “a phase of consolidation and optimisation” for its corporate structures since last year, following “years of rapid and successful expansion”.

The release quotes Mr Neumann as saying: “Novomatic will continue along its chosen path and further optimise internal structures in Austria and the international group companies across national borders.”

Novomatic said last week that its profit for the first half of 2019 fell by 68.8 percent year-on-year to EUR34.3 million (US$37.7 million). The firm’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 5.1 percent to EUR297.1 million in the period, after hitting a record high of EUR313.0 million a year earlier.