UK-listed online gambling operator Bwin.party digital entertainment turned in a better than expected Q4 trading update, its last before the company is absorbed by GVC Holdings.
On Tuesday, Bwin.party issued a pre-close trading update showing Q4 revenue up 5% year-on-year, with most of the gains coming via the sports betting and casino verticals. The company says real growth was 8% if you factor out the impact of new value added taxes in its European Union markets.
Bwin.party said its mobile channels had performed particularly well, which GVC investors will find encouraging, given that Bwin.party had been comparatively slow to grasp the significance that mobile would hold for the online gambling industry.
The single-digit revenue boost is more impressive due to it representing the company’s first year-on-year positive quarterly momentum in two years. Bwin.party says its outlook for the year is strong, presuming it has a good showing in this summer’s European Championship. The company also expects to reap a full year’s benefits from its aggressive cost-cutting moves in 2015.
Bwin.party said the company would enjoy a one-off €10m gain in Q2 from the sale of Visa Europe to Visa Inc. that was announced in November. Bwin.party’s Kalixa Payments Group is one of Visa Europe’s more than 3,000 ‘principal members’ and therefore expects a cut of the €21.2b transaction’s upfront consideration, as well as a slice of the €4.7b earn-out, should Kalixa still be a principal member at the end of the four-year earn-out period.
Bwin.party also announced that Feb. 1, 2016 is the expected completion date of its takeover by GVC. Both companies’ shareholders approved the deal in December, so all that’s left is approval by the Court of Gibraltar. The new enhanced GVC shares are expected to begin trading on the London Stock Exchange on Feb. 2.
