GVC Holdings said 2015 was a “momentous year for the company” as it reported 10 percent growth in gaming revenue for the year in its first London FTSE market update.
GVC Holdings Plc also completed its acquisition of bwin.party Entertainment assets in December 2015, though the deal officially closed in February.
GVC reported a 10 percent increase in net gaming revenues for 2015 at €248 million. The company said it was the fifth consecutive year of revenue growth and the company posted an EBITDA of €54 million up 10 percent from 2014.
The bwin.party acquisition did lower the company’s operating profit of €27.7 million, down 35 percent from 2014, but without the acquisition costs the company estimates it would have posted a profits gain of about 21 percent, the company said.
For the first quarter of 2016, GVC said total group gaming revenues—including bwin.party—was €167 million, a 180 percent gain over 2015’s first quarter. The company said all of its core brands had contributed to the first quarter growth.
For 2016 outlook, GVC noted that the company had strengthened its senior management and governance teams adding former Playtech executives Liron Snir (CPO) and Shay Segev (COO) as group product and integration leads.
“GVC has had a momentous year,” said Kenneth Alexander, CEO. “Not only has the company seen a fifth consecutive year of revenue and clean EBITDA growth but the completion of the bwin.party acquisition in early 2016 affords us an opportunity to take the Group to the next level. 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,” he said. “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.”
