Keywords Studios revenues soar in year of 'continued growth'

31st Jan 2019 09:40

(Sharecast News) - Computer games industry services provider Keywords Studios reported a pre-close update on a year of acquisitive and organic growth on Thursday.Boosted by the eight acquisitions made throughout the year, Keywords now anticipates revenues of no less than €250m - an increase of at least 65% on 2017.As a result of the significant revenue growth, earnings per share are expected to be roughly €0.47 - a 51% increase year-on-year.Keywords stated that almost all of its seven service lines had delivered "a strong performance" - with particularly strong growth in its Player Support and Engineering businesses.However, the AIM-listed firm noted that this had been partially offset by a weaker than expected performance from its Localisation Testing division.Keywords noted that it finished the year with €400,000 in net debt, a marked drop from the €11.1m in cash it had on hand a year earlier, as a result of the €26.2m outlay on acquisitions during the year.Chief executive Andrew Day said: "We are pleased with the group's continued organic growth, in a year in which our markets were impacted by the Fortnite phenomenon.""This together with the group's successful acquisitive growth has seen us increase revenues and profit before tax by approximately 65% in the year."Keywords shares, having soared around 900% to above 2,000p over the two and a half years to last summer before a big tumble due to the abovementioned rise of Fortnite game, climbed 8.15% to 1,168p on Thursday morning.