Supplier News

Austria – Novomatic boosts first half profit to €104m

By Phil - 2 September 2014

Austrian-based slot giant Novomatic reported record first half profit of €104m (US$137m) up from €66.8m
Slot machine sales increased by 15 per cent to €941m whilst EBITDA increased by almost nine per cent to €289.1m.

For the first six months of this year, revenues reached €941m, representing an increase of 15 per cent compared to the first half of 2013. EBIT increased by 20 per cent to €165m.

The first six months were peppered with new acquisitions. In January it bought Gibraltar’s casino from Gala Coral Group. It also has bought the Loontjens arcade operator in the Netherlands for around €20m marking the Austrian slot giant’s first move as an operator in the Dutch market. Having bought the property in 2013 Novomatic has also re-launched what it describes as ‘the latest flagship operation in Macedonia’ with the new Casino FlamingGO Gala. It also expanded in the UK , where it bought Luxury Leisure Unlimited and SAL Leisure Limited through its Astra division for €68m. Alongside all these acquisitions, Novomatic relinquished its share of the Monticello casino in Chile.

Novomatic recruited more than 1,700 new staff during the first half of the year taking its total to 17,519, up 10.7 per cent than in 2013.

Franz Wohlfahrt, Novomatic’s CEO, said: “The first half year results for 2014 demonstrate that our dual business strategy has once again proved to be the right way to a successful future. We achieved an increase in gaming operation revenues of 17 per cent. A significant growth in turnover was also achieved in the sales, e-business and betting segments.”