22nd May 2007 07:01
Paddy Power plc22 May 2007 Paddy Power plc AGM Trading Update The Chairman of Paddy Power plc, Fintan Drury, will make the following statementat the Company's Annual General Meeting to be held in Dublin at 11am thismorning (22 May 2007): "2006 was an excellent year of growth and profitability for Paddy Power withstrong double digit growth in turnover, gross win and operating profit in eachof our channels and an overall increase in underlying operating profit of 51% to€45.5m. I am pleased to inform you that 2007 has also started very well. The 20 weeksto 15 May 2007 have been characterised by an exceptionally favourable run ofsporting results for Paddy Power. Whilst this has unsurprisingly resulted inlower growth in sportsbook turnover than would otherwise have been anticipated,the absolute amount of sportsbook gross win in the first 20 weeks has been aheadof our expectations. Overall sportsbook turnover has increased by 12% in thefirst 20 weeks of 2007 as compared to the first 20 weeks of 2006. Sportsbookturnover for the period was up 10% in the retail channel, down 2% in thetelephone channel and up 26% in the online channel. Gaming gross win within the online channel increased significantly in the first20 weeks of 2007 as a result of strong growth in poker, casino and games, aswell as the launch in the second half of 2006 of our online bingo business.During March, we migrated our poker customers from the software of our networksupplier to that of another network, Playtech, which had acquired them. As aresult the rate of gaming gross win growth has, as expected, been slower in the10 weeks since that migration. We are continuing to address this by implementinga wide range of initiatives designed to increase revenue generation within thenew poker network environment. Our expansion into new businesses continues and we anticiate launchingpaddypowertrader.com, an online financial spread betting business, during thesummer. Paddy Power Trader will market spread betting opportunities on equities,commodities and indices with a differentiating emphasis on education, value and,of course, entertainment. Given the substantial ongoing investment to exploit growth opportunities in bothour retail and non retail divisions, the Group remains confident about itsfuture growth prospects. With the benefit of the favourable sporting results inthe first 20 weeks, the Group now expects operating profit of approximately €58min 2007, assuming those sporting results are not offset by an unfavourable runover the remainder of the year, and continued turnover growth in line with ourexpectations. This result would represent underlying operating profit growthcompared to 2006 of approximately 27% or 8% above the current consensus marketforecast." ENDS Issued on behalf of Paddy Power plc by Drury Communications Ltd For reference, contact: Patrick Kennedy Jack MasseyChief Executive Finance DirectorPaddy Power plc Paddy Power plcTel: + 353 1 404 5912 Tel: + 353 1 404 5912 Billy Murphy / Oonagh Daly Trevor PhillipsDrury Communications Ltd Holborn PRTel: + 353 1 260 5000 Tel: + 44 20 7929 5599Mobile: + 353 87 855 4406 (OD) Mobile: + 44 7889 153 628 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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