Gambling machines and digital games provider Aristocrat Technologies has cited growth across its digital businesses as one of the main reasons behind a year-on-year increase in revenue and profit during the first half of the year.
Normalised operating revenue for the six months to March 31, 2019 amounted to Aus$2.105bn (£1.15bn/€1.30bn/US$1.45bn), up 29.8% on Aus$1.62bn in the corresponding period last year.
Aristocrat noted significant digital growth during the period, with revenue from this side of the group rising 36.9% year-on-year to US$586.8m. The provider put this down to the success of its Product Madness arm and the full-period benefit of its acquired Plarium and Big Fish businesses.
Americas revenue was up 18.1% to US$682.7m, while the Australian and New Zealand business also experienced growth, with revenue improving by 7.0% to Aus$230.0m.
However, Aristocrat saw a 15.0% dip in international revenue to Aus$92.0m as the business continues to cycle over a concentration of new casino openings and shifts in product mix in the prior year.
Although Aristocrat did not go into details in terms of costs and expenses for the first half, it did reveal year-on-year growth across other key financials during the period.
Normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation climbed 19.2% to Aus$766.3m, albeit with a slightly lower margin of 36.4% compared to 39.6% last year.
Elsewhere, normalised net profit after tax increased by 14.8% to Aus$356.5m, while net profit after tax and before amortisation jumped 16.8% to Aus$422.3m.
Reflecting on the results, Aristocrat CEO and managing director, Trevor Croker, said he is pleased with how the business continues to deliver above market profitable growth, which he said has led to “strong free cash flow and the ability to reinvest to self-fund future growth, whilst ensuring strong foundations remain in place”.
“Another double-digit profit improvement over the six months to 31 March 2019 demonstrates our sound and ambitious strategy and strong commercial execution,” Croker said. “We continued to significantly expand our addressable markets across both digital and land-based segments.
“We have successfully integrated our recently acquired Digital businesses, and made significant progress transitioning towards a stronger, more diverse Digital portfolio with a focus on portfolio growth and optimisation, leveraging our scale and driving efficiency.”