Intralot hit by FX headwinds
Greek operator attributes 10m profit hit to negative exchange rates as underlying business continues to grow
Greek lottery and gaming operator Intralot has posted a net profit figure of just 0.5m for the first nine months of 2013 after being hit by negative currency exchange rates.
The company registered EBITDA of 143.5m for the period ending 30 September, a year-on-year increase of 23%, which the company said included a net exchange loss of 5.9m. However, net profit felt the brunt of the negative FX as 10m was wiped off its final total of 500,000.
According to Intralot, on an adjusted for FX basis, net profit would have reached 10.5m during the nine-month period.
Despite the FX impact, revenues grew year-on-year by 8% to 1.1bn, however, net debt in Q3 increased by 35.5m which Intralot attributed to increased capital expenditure and high-yield bond issue expenses.
“The improvement of EBITDA margins and financial results, despite the FX impact we have witnessed in the last couple of quarters, is also indicative of the strength of the real, underlying business,” Constantinos Antonopoulos, Intralot Group CEO, said.
“In our view, FX impact is a short-term and temporary situation that we expect to improve in the next few quarters,” he added.
Intralot has scored a number of contract wins of late, including a sports betting contract in Taiwan, its third contract in the country, and a deal with Hellenic Lotteries in Greece which is expected to start in Q1 2014.
In addition, in October the company launched its first Polish site, Totolek, while in September it stumped up 10m to take an additional 25.01% holding in Turkish online sports betting company Bilyoner to give it an overall controlling stake.
Intralot’s global strategy has seen it launch products in Peru, South Africa, Italy, Mexico, Poland and Turkey in recent years.