Bwin swings to profit; no change to recommendation of 888 offer
Onling gambling group Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment posted a small rise in core first-half earnings and said it swung to a profit despite being impacted by lower revenue and higher taxes..
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The company, which is currently in the middle of a bidding war between GVC Holdings and 888 Holdings, said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 2% from the first half of last year to €47.3m.
In the six months ended 30 June, Bwin swung to a profit after tax of €2.9m from a €94m loss in the same period last year.
Total revenue fell to €296.5m from 317.1m, reflecting the absence of the FIFA World Cup, lower margins in sports, market declines in poker and the impact of EU VAT in certain markets. Bwin said nationally regulated and/or taxed market represented 60% of total revenue, versus 56% in 2014.
The company said it was on track to meet or exceed its €15m incremental cost saving target this year and lifted its interim dividend by 2% to 1.92p from 1.89p.
Bwin said that whilst discussions with GVC are ongoing, there has been no change to the board’s recommendation for 888’s offer.
Chief executive officer Norbert Teufelberger said: “Our progress on non-core asset disposals and other cost saving initiatives is running ahead of plan - excluding the impact of EU VAT and UK point of consumption tax, clean EBITDA would have increased by 24%.
"Based upon our progress in the year-to-date and with the further roll-out of our latest mobile products, the introduction of new CRM tools and planned entry into two new nationally regulated markets later this year, we remain confident about the full year outlook."