25th Apr 2016 06:38
LONDON (Alliance News) - Online gaming company GVC Holdings PLC on Monday said its pretax profit fell in 2015 due to exceptional costs related to the takeover of larger rival Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, but it posted higher net gaming revenue and increased its dividend.
GVC said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was EUR25.5 million, compared to EUR41.3 million in 2014, primarily due to the EUR24.5 million in one-off charges booked from the acquisition of Bwin.
Net gaming revenue, however, grew to EUR247.7 million from EUR224.8 million, driven by sports wagers rising 15% to EUR1.7 billion from EUR1.5 billion.
GVC said its total dividend payout for the year will rise to 56.0 euro cents, up from 55.0 euro cents a year earlier.
The focus for GVC is on 2016, and the group said its net gaming revenue ballooned in the first quarter thanks to the Bwin deal. Net gaming revenue was up to EUR167.7 million in the three months to the end of March from EUR60.0 million a year earlier. The Bwin deal completed on February 1.
Like-for-like, net gaming revenue per day increased 9.0% in the first quarter, GVC said.
It added it remains on track to deliver EUR125.0 million in synergies from the enlarged business by the end of 2017.
"GVC has never been in a stronger position going forward. The enlarged group is already enjoying encouraging trading, resulting from our unique mix of diversified products and strong brands. There is much work to be done, nevertheless, with GVC brands and bwin.party brands (including PartyPoker), growing, together with synergy benefits, we look forward with confidence to another successful year," Kenneth Alexander, GVC's chief executive, said in a statement.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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