growth

Online gambling super affiliate XLMedia expects its full-year revenue to be lower than last year, despite a strong end to 2018.

The affiliate marketing company said it had focused on “higher margin business” in the second half of 2018, with earnings (adjusted EBITDA) of $47.1m.

However, the company said its revenue for 2018 will be approximately $118m, compared to the $137.6m recorded a year prior. XLMedia also said it has a “material” cash balance and its operations “continue to generate strong cash flows”.

The company said in the statement that it will continue to focus on growing its higher margin publishing division, which includes the emerging US gambling market.

Shares in XLMedia fell around two per cent on the news.

Separately, XLMedia confirmed it had bought back 108,053 shares at 74.17 pence as part of its $10m buy-back programme.

The company will buy a maximum of 22.0 million shares open market transactions. XLMedia currently holds 1.8 million shares in treasury as part of the buy-back scheme.

Chris Bell, non-executive chair, said when announcing the buy-back programme: “As part of our broader strategy to deliver shareholder value, coupled with recent weakness in our share price, the board has concluded that it is an opportune moment to undertake a share buy-back initiative, alongside maintaining our current dividend policy.”