Playtech share price up on trading update
Gaming giant confirms it expects to meet market consensus and achieve double-digit growth for FY2014
Playtech’s share price shot up 6% this morning after the supplier issued a trading statement in which it said it expects to meet market consensus with its 2014 full-year results.
Shares in the company reached 691.5p at the time of writing, its highest price since early November 2014 when regulatory developments in Malaysia caused the share price to fall 8%.
“It is the Board’s expectation that both total revenues and adjusted EBITDA for the full-year will be comfortably in line with the latest market consensus, representing significant double-digit growth versus the year ended 31 December 2013,” the statement read.
Market estimates have put Playtech’s revenue and EBITDA for 2014 at around 451.8m and 204.1m respectively, and results of that kind would be representative of growth of 23% and 28%.
Playtech continues to be linked with M&A activity after chief executive Mor Weizer said he expects the firm to make an acquisition that will “take Playtech to the next level” in the first half of this year.
Cenkos Securities reiterated its ‘Buy’ rating of the firm and analyst Simon French said Playtech “has enough firepower to make a transformational and significantly accretive acquisition”.
The firm issued a 315m bond offer in November to raise funds for an acquisition drive and has previously been linked with a bid for bwin.party.