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Outlook for 2013 and 2014Healthy financial position and launch of a share buy-back program
For the fourth year in a row Gameloft has improved significantly its financial position. The company’s equity stood at €128.0 million and net cash reached an all-time high of €55.6 million at the end of 2012. Cash generation was strong during the year: Gameloft’s operating cash flow before change in working capital stood at €28.3 million, up 28% year on year, and net cash increased by €18.7 million in twelve months. Therefore, the company has the financial resources necessary to continue to grow and increase its market shares around the world.
Given its healthy net cash position and the stock’s historically low multiples, the company has decided to launch an ambitious share buy-back program totaling 1.5 million shares at a maximum purchase price of €7.0 per share over a period of eight months starting on April 16, 2013.
Multiple Licensing Deals Announced
Gameloft has secured the worldwide rights to several major new franchises in recent months. These agreements with some of the most prestigious players in the entertainment industry illustrate once again the reputation for quality of our development studios as well as the unparalleled distribution reach put in place by Gameloft around the world. The company is in particular very proud to announce its first ever licensing deal with Disney Interactive
Starting in 2013 the company will launch games based on:
Disney•Pixar’s upcoming release of “Monsters University” for feature phones Disney•Pixar’s “Cars” for feature phones, smartphones and tablets Universal’s upcoming movie “Despicable Me” for smartphones and tablets Marvel’s upcoming movie “Iron Man 3” for feature phones, smartphones and tablets
The rights to several additional franchises have been secured recently and will be announced in the course of 2013 by the company.
Outlook for 2013 and 2014
After three financial years of significant investments which led to the hiring of close to 2,000 additional employees since the beginning of 2010 and which has allowed the company to complete its full transition towards the “free-to-play” model and to accelerate the growth of its revenues, Gameloft is entering an exciting new phase of its development.
The company now has the means to release between twenty and thirty high-quality games on feature phones, smartphones and tablets. These games are launched in thirteen different languages on 1,500 smartphone models and 300 feature phone models. There is, to our knowledge, no equivalent even remotely close in the industry.
All smartphone and tablet games that are now released by Gameloft are freemium or paymium and heavily social. To this day, 515 million of its freemium and paymium games have been installed on iOS and Android, and during the last thirty days close to 75 million users have played a Gameloft game. The “free-to-play” model has been applied successfully to feature phones as well by the company. This new offer is allowing Gameloft to target new customers on feature phones around the world.
One of the company’s main objectives for the coming months will be to optimize the monetization of its games which increasingly resemble services rather than simple games. The monetization of Gameloft’s games has improved significantly since its first freemium title was launched in March 2011, but there is still a significant margin for improvement which should allow Gameloft to improve the return on investments of its creations.
In 2012, 700 million smartphones were sold compared with 490 million in 2011[1]. Gameloft expects strong smartphone and tablet sales in 2013. The momentum of the smartphone and tablet market should therefore continue to sustain Gameloft's growth in the upcoming quarters. In particular, the company expects, starting in 2013, a flood of low-end smartphones and tablets priced between €50 and €100 across the world. Games on these low-end smartphones and tablets will be radically different from the games that have been developed until now on smartphones and tablets, and Gameloft will be able to leverage its ten-year experience on feature phones in this new segment and take significant market shares.
Therefore, the company is expecting growth in 2013 in terms of sales, profitability and net cash.
As a reminder, sales for the first quarter of 2013 will be published on May 14, 2013, after the market closes.
About Gameloft: A leading global publisher of digital and social games, Gameloft® has established itself as one of the top innovators in its field since 2000. Gameloft creates games for all digital platforms, including mobile phones, smartphones and tablets, set-top boxes and connected TVs. Gameloft operates its own established franchises such as Asphalt®, Real Football®, Modern Combat and Order & Chaos®, and also partners with major rights holders including Marvel®, Hasbro®, FOX®, Mattel® and Ferrari®. Gameloft is present on all continents, distributes its games in over 100 countries and employs over 5,000 developers. Gameloft is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (NYSE Euronext: GFT.PA, Bloomberg: GFT FP, Reuters: GLFT.PA). Gameloft’s sponsored Level 1 ADR (ticker: GLOFY) is traded OTC in the US. For further information: Gabriel Goldwasser Tel: 415-615-0520 Email: Gabriel.Goldwasser@gameloft.com
For more information, consult www.gameloft.com.
[1] Strategy Analytics Date: 2016-01-03; view: 950
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