Supplier News
US – WMS year-on-year quarterly profit falls by 39 per cent
By Phil - 3 September 2013
Profit fell by 39 per cent in the fourth quarter for WMS Industries, compared to last year’s fourth quarter despite a record number of wide-area progressives installed and record numbers of replacement slots in the US and Canada.
The slot giant reported revenue of $202.8m and net income of $13.5m, which included the impact for costs related to the pending acquisition of WMS by Scientific Games. For the 2012 fourth quarter, WMS reported revenue of $195.9m and net income of $22.1m.
Quarter to quarter things were looking up though with total revenues growing four over the prior-year quarter to $202.8m and increased 14 per cent on a quarterly sequential basis.
WMS shipped approximately 2,450 new for-sale Blade cabinets in the June 2013 quarter driving a quarterly record 4,376 new replacement gaming machines shipped in the US and Canada.
International unit shipments improved by 39 per cent year over year to 2,055 gaming machines.
Brian Gamache, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Excellent customer and player demand for our innovative new Blade and Gamefield xD gaming machines drove year-over-year increases in new gaming machine sales and participation revenues, and these improvements, combined with continued strength in interactive products and services revenues, led to the growth in our quarterly revenues. Our investments in R&D during the last several years have supported the development of great new products, games and innovative new gaming experiences that deliver substantial value for our casino customers and have set WMS on a path for renewed long-term growth. At next month’s G2E industry trade show, we’ll demonstrate our latest new products that offer engaging gaming entertainment, including a full range of new premium participation and for-sale games.”
“Over the last two years, WMS prudently allocated capital to refresh our installed participation base while investing in R&D initiatives to develop innovative new premium games and platforms, such as the Gamefield xD participation gaming machine that launched in the March 2013 quarter,” said Gamache. “As a result, today we have approximately 1,400 Gamefield xD cabinets in our installed participation base; and by accelerating the replacement and upgrading of our footprint, approximately 80 per cent of our installed gaming machines are Bluebird2, Bluebird xD and Gamefield xD cabinets. These investments have established a solid foundation for consistent growth in our gaming operations. We expect to continue to generate further growth across our entire participation footprint and deliver strong earnings performance for our customers.
“The significant enhancement in graphics and player experience enabled by the increased power of our next-generation CPU-NXT operating platform and Blade cabinet is driving superior in-casino performance of our newest for-sale games such as Great Zeus, Lantern Festival and Montezuma themes. As a result of the exceptional player appeal and customer performance, the Blade cabinet represented about 36 per cent of global new units shipped in the June quarter, exceeding the previous record demand pace established by the launch of theBluebird2 cabinet in 2008. Recently, we doubled the number of game themes available on the Blade platform and continue to extend the range of entertaining themes and play experiences available for the Blade cabinet to provide additional diversity of engaging game play for players and customers.
“In addition, success throughout fiscal 2013 in leveraging our creative development capabilities and legendary slot game library to create new interactive products and services resulted in interactive revenues reaching $57 million in annual revenues compared to just $4m in fiscal 2012. We are highly encouraged by the successful development efforts and growth initiatives of our interactive products and services during the past year and expect to achieve additional growth in fiscal 2014 as we further monetize key game launches and realize ongoing benefits from the recent expanded availability of our Jackpot Party Social Casino in tablet and mobile device channels. We are confident that our interactive gaming initiatives and distribution opportunities for our content and games in these growing channels is a source of significant long-term growth potential for the company,” concluded Mr. Gamache.
