North American growth drives 27.3% rise in profits in Aristocrat H1
Aristocrat said that the H1 results demonstrated the “resilience, competitiveness and diversification” of its portfolio, despite challenging market conditions.
Chief executive officer and managing director Trevor Croker highlighted the role of its subsidiary Anaxi in achieving its results. The organisation is Aristocrat’s real money gaming (RMG) division.
Last year, the business invested $42m in the organisation, as well as another $240m in user acquisition.
Online segment supports North American growth
“Our newest operating business, Anaxi, delivered on its initial market entry commitments and established sound foundations for growth,” he said.
“With content agreements signed with partners representing over 55% of the igaming market in the US, we are comfortably on course to exceed our target of penetrating at least 70% of regulated jurisdictions across North America over the next five years.
Crocker made clear that these results happened despite a difficult operating environment.
“Our teams faced into considerable economic and political uncertainty during the half, including the continuation of the conflict in Ukraine, and I am tremendously thankful for their efforts,” he added.
“Looking ahead, we will continue to navigate challenges with a focus on portfolio performance and capturing the significant strategic opportunities in front of us including delivering on our online RMG strategy with the proposed acquisition of NeoGames announced earlier this week,” Croker concluded.
Aristocrat H1 sees strong revenue growth
For the six-month period ending 31 March, revenue rose 12.2% to $3.08bn, up from $2.75bn. In addition to the company’s North American growth, it highlighted the role of its Outright Sales division in achieving this.
Aristocrat’s Americas segment represented the lion’s share of the revenue at $1.45bn – a 26.4% rise from the previous year. In comparison, its other significant segments Australia and Pixel United shrank by 0.5% and grew 0.7% respectively.
Aristocrat recorded earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $1.03bn in H1, an increase of 5.7% compared to the prior period.
This resulted in a pre-tax profit of $852.8m, a 42.6% rise, and a post-tax profit of $653m. Crocker emphasised the role over investment in achieving these results.
“The benefit of our investment to grow and diversify Aristocrat’s revenue base was particularly evident in our ability to deliver solid revenue growth and stable EBITDA in constant currency at group level over the half year, with a continued strong performance from the Aristocrat Gaming Americas business more than offsetting the challenging mobile gaming market conditions for Pixel United,” he said.