Imperus posts EBITDA jump after social casino transformation

 Developer will target Latin America in 2016 as part of new growth strategy

 

Canadian social casino firm Imperus this morning said a change in strategy was behind its 2015 full-year EBITDA of CA$5.3m, a sharp improvement on the $3.6m loss posted the previous year.

The firm said the turnaround was the result of a “complete business transformation”, from a developer of real-money gaming technology at the beginning of the year, to a social casino game publisher and operator.

Full-year revenues for Imperus – the parent company of the Diwip and Akamon brands – reached $24.1m from almost nothing in 2014.

“Imperus’ transformation has only just begun,” James Lanthier, group CEO, said. “Since the acquisition of Akamon we have moved to integrate both operating businesses under one management structure in order to realize synergies and more importantly, a common strategic direction.”

Lanthier said the Diwip and Akamon monikers would be shelved in 2016 in favour of a new corporate name to “streamline the brand”.

Going forward, the group will target non-US markets, where “customer acquisition costs are lower, growth rates are higher, and there is an opportunity to build a market leading business that can grow along with secular trends”.

Lanthier added: “We are continuing to focus our efforts on Latin America, where the interactive games category has the fastest growth rate of any geographic region, but the social casino market is much less well developed.”

For the 2016 financial year, the company offered a new guidance of 18-20% growth, slightly above the projected 16% growth rate of the overall social casino sector.

“We feel very good about our business and its trajectory,” Lanthier added.