Digital drives profit growth at Aristocrat in H1

Aristocrat Leisure has cited the performance of its digital business as one of the key reasons behind a year-on-year rise in profit during the first half.

Reported profit after tax and before amortisation of acquired intangibles (NPATA) in the six months to March 31 totalled $307.5m (€262.3), up 12.7% on the previous year.

Profit after tax was also up 2.8% year-on-year from $249.6m to $256.5, while revenue climbed 28.5% from $1.23bn to $1.58bn.

Aristocrat also published normalised results to exclude the impact of certain significant items, namely contingent retention; fair value adjustments of deferred revenue; and expenses relating to both acquisitions and integration of Plarium and Big Fish.

Normalised NPATA amounted to $361.5m, up 32.5% on the previous year, while normalised net profit after tax climbed 24.4% to $310.5m.

In addition, normalised operating revenue was up 33.6% to $1.64bn.

Trevor Croker, chief executive and managing director of Aristocrat, said: “Aristocrat has delivered another period of strong growth and operational performance, built on outstanding talent, product, technology and improved front end execution.

“The strong 32% profit improvement over the six months demonstrates the soundness of our strategy whilst highlighting our broadening ambition, as we make substantial progress in expanding our addressable market across both digital and land-based segments.

“Aristocrat will continue to push for growth by increasing our strategic investment in design and development, in order to protect and extend market leading positions, whilst attacking attractive adjacencies.

“We will also maintain our focus on successfully integrating our new digital businesses, while accelerating collaboration, in order to fully leverage our deepening digital and land-based capabilities.

“And we will embed a people first, innovative and customer centric culture, that supports our growth ambitions over the long-term.”

Related article: Aristocrat finalises acquisition of Big Fish Games