GVC revenues up 12% in Q4 trading update
Operator announces double-digit sports and gaming growth ahead of shareholder vote on bwin.party acquisition
GVC Holdings this morning revealed net gaming revenue (NGR) for the first two months of Q4 was up 12% as shareholders prepare to cast their vote on the operator’s planned £1.2bn acquisition of bwin.party.
Total NGR for the 61-day period ended 30 November was 43.4m, an average of 716,000 per day, with sports NGR up 11% to 20m and wagers up 13% to 300m.
The increase in turnover was more than enough to outweigh a slight decline in sports margin, which fell from 9.8% to 9.2%.
However gaming enjoyed the biggest increase with NGR up 13% to 23.4m with the results putting GVC’s NGR for the 11 months of the year 10.5% ahead of the comparative period in 2014.
The firm described the performance as “most encouraging” and said it was confident of the outlook for the remainder of the year.
The numbers come ahead of the operator’s EGM on 15 December where shareholders are expected to vote through the operator’s proposed takeover of bwin.party.
Earlier this week GVC announced Gala Coral chief strategy officer and former Playtech COO Shay Segev would join the firm as COO on 1 March and lead the integration of the bwin.party business.
“I am delighted to announce the continued strong financial performance of GVC for the first two months of the last quarter,” Kenneth Alexander, GVC chief executive, said. “The Board remain confident that the outturn for the 2015 financial year will be very positive.
“GVC has an excellent track record of growing revenues and turning around under-performing assets and the GVC Board is highly confident that a positive vote at the EGM on 15 December 2015, to approve the proposed acquisition of bwin.party digital entertainment plc, will be the next transformational move for the GVC Group,” he added.
GVC’s share price was up 2.5p to 381p after early morning trading.