Snaitech confirms first profitable year in a decade

Italian operator Snaitech has announced its financial results for the 12 months to December 31, 2017, posting profit for the first time in a decade.

Net profit for the year amounted to €27m ($33.1m), compared to a loss of €17m in 2016, while profit before tax was also up from a loss of €35.6m to a positive of €41.6m.

Earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 5.9% year-on-year to €135.9m, while earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) climbed 61.8% to €82.1m.

However, revenue dropped 1% from €898.5m to €889.6m, while total wagers were also down by 0.5% from €10.53bn in 2016 to €10.48bn.

The company noted a sharp increase in online wagers during 2017, with this total up 29.9% year-on-year to €9.96bn, while retail betting wagers fell 2.7% to €1.19bn and gaming machines dropped 4.4% to €7.15bn.

Snaitech also posted net financial indebtness of €428.8m for the year, which is an improvement on €480.9m at the end of 2016.

The firm said that EBITDA and EBIT may be “helpful indicators” to explain changes in operating performance and may “provide useful information” on the company’s ability to manage its indebtedness.

Fabio Schiavolin, chief executive of Snaitech, also said: “The group has finalised the merger with Cogetech by achieving synergies, ahead of schedule, for approximately €20m and, more importantly, establishing a unique and invaluable wealth of resources, know-how and technologies, which led to a net profit of €27m.

“I would remark how such performance, along with the strong cash generation of €55m and the increase of EBITDA to €136m, was achieved in an unfavourable regulatory framework for concessioners, owing to taxation increase on gaming machines, introduced last April, and more generally to the absence of homogeneous rules on Gambling applied by local authorities.”

Schiavolin added: “Snaitech’s growth strategy in such a competitive arena is mainly focused on the following two drivers, well represented in 2017 annual reports.

“These are the growth of the online business, which recorded an increase of wagers by 30% owing to a valuable brand and a unique services portfolio in Italy; and the development of the proprietary platform Smart Technology to rejuvenate our betting distribution network, with a total capex plan of more than  20m for the two-year period 2017-18.”

Related article: BetGames.TV goes live with Italy’s Snaitech