21st Mar 2016 11:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - NetPlay TV PLC Monday hiked its full-year dividend, after it reported a rise in pretax profit in 2015 coming from lower marketing expenses and impairment charges, and said strong growth was continuing into 2016.
The interactive gaming company said pretax profit was GBP624,000 from GBP93,000 in 2014, as marketing costs fell to GBP9.4 million in the year ended December 31, from GBP12.9 million a year earlier, and NetPlay booked no impairments on intangible assets. In 2014, NetPlay was hit with a GBP869,000 impairment charge in respect of domain names in bingo assets acquired in 2008.
The acquisition related and other expenses came in at GBP167,000, representing costs associated with the acquisition of digital marketing business Otherside Inc. A year earlier these costs had been GBP789,000.
This offset a slight fall in revenue to GBP26.3 million from GBP27.4 million.
NetPlay is proposing a final dividend of 0.34 pence per share, as well as a special dividend of 0.68 pence per share, which will bring its full year dividend to 1.24p per share, up from 0.55p per share in 2014.
It said it has seen a strong start to 2016, with revenue up 18%, a 26% increase in new depositing players and a 16% increase in active depositing players in the period from January 1 to March 15, over the same period in 2015.
"NetPlay TV continues to have a very strong balance sheet and remains highly cash generative, giving the board continued confidence that the group is well positioned to pursue not just bolt on opportunities but also more transformational deals, taking advantage of the organic growth and merger and acquisition opportunities that lie ahead," said Chief Executive Bjarke Larsen.
Shares in NetPlay were up 15% at 9.94 pence on Monday.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.