An aggressive US assault has led Aristocrat to declare a “high quality result” for the full-year ending September 30, 2023, with increases underpinned by the “outstanding growth” of its land-based gaming segment, social casino “resilience” and maiden RMG steps.
This latter point is once again a key talking point of an address delivered by CEO and MD Trevor Croker, who stressed that the company is focused on continuing to navigate challenges ahead.
This includes focusing “on portfolio performance and capturing the significant strategic opportunities in front of us”, which comprises delivering on its online gaming ambitions and maximising the impact of the impending NeoGames purchase.
After meeting an ultimately doomed fate following a long protracted $2.7bn Playtech pursuit, Aristocrat is expecting to close the aforementioned $1.2bn acquisition during the first half of 2024.
During the year, Croker has hailed company growth as demonstrating “ongoing resilience, competitiveness and diversification”, in addition to “sound fundamentals” that have enabled Aristocrat to “accelerate investment behind our successful growth strategy”.
Within the group’s latest financial breakdown, Aristocrat reported a revenue increase of 13 per cent to A$6.29bn (2022: A$5.57bn), with the aforementioned factors, in addition to “the benefit of our strategic investments”, said to be “particularly evident”.
Elsewhere, net profit after tax recorded a 24.4 per cent uptick to A$1.24bn (2022: A$1bn), while EBITDA closed at A$2.1bn, up 13.8 per cent year-on-year from A$1.85bn.
The Aristocrat Gaming division saw the Americas deliver an increase in post-tax profit, driven by a 26 per cent increase in North America outright sales units, while Pixel United is said to have “demonstrated resilience” despite the global mobile games market declining five per cent.
Furthermore, Anaxi is reported as having “delivered on its initial market entry commitments and continued to establish solid foundations for growth”.
The group’s RMG unit is live with seven operators in six countries across eight jurisdictions, and has secured “content agreements with partners representing over 80 per cent of the US igaming market”.
Croker continued: “The benefit of our strategic investments to grow and diversify Aristocrat was particularly evident in the strong seven per cent revenue and EBITDA growth in constant currency at group level over the year.
“This was underpinned by an exceptional gaming performance which more than offset an extended industry-wide moderation in mobile game demand, again highlighting diversification and scale as fundamental strengths of our business.”
Adding: “We continued to invest to grow in attractive adjacencies and verticals, as we build further resilience in our operating portfolio, including through executing our ‘build and buy’ strategy in online RMG.”
