Thursday, online gaming company 888 Holdings plc (888.L) reported a sharp decline in profit for the first half of fiscal 2009, hurt primarily by a significant drop in revenues.
For the first half, the company's profit before tax was US$9.76 million as against US$21.12 million in the prior-year period. Excluding share benefit charges of a little over US$5 million in both years, pre-tax profit was US$14.90 million compared with US$26.30 million in the previous year.
Profit attributable to shareholders plunged to US$8.06 million or 2.3 cents per share from US$18.87 million or 5.4 cents per share in the first half of fiscal 2008.
888 Holdings' revenues for the six-month period was US$117.88 million compared to US$131.53 million in the year-ago period.
On a segmental basis, revenues from casino dropped to US$55.88 million from US$69.75 million, and poker revenues were US$26.25 million versus US$40.22 million last year. Revenues from emerging offerings increased to US$11.43 million from US$4.55 million, and business to business, or B2B, segment generated revenues of US$24.32 million as against US$17.01 million in the prior-year period.
Chief executive officer Gigi Levy said, "Our B2B business, Dragonfish, has grown revenues by 42% year-on-year, and we have the structure in place to enable us to realise the division's full benefits over the next 18 months and beyond."
Dragonfish is a trading brand that offers to its business partners use of technology, software, operations, E-payments and advanced marketing services, through offline/online marketing, management of affiliates, and business analytics.
The board declared a total dividend of 3.6 cents per share for the period, which includes an interim dividend of 1.0 cent per share and an additional special dividend of 2.6 cents per share, payable on October 8, 2009.
Looking ahead, for the second half of the year, the entertainment company intends to re-launch its second-brand Reef Club Casino, launching a new bingo brand focused at a different consumer segment. 888 Holdings said it sees liquidity grow in poker segment for the rest of the year.
Subject to no further significant economic deterioration, Levy expects the company's business to consumer segment, which includes casino, poker and emerging offerings, to show a typical seasonal patterns return, namely a broadly flat third quarter and growth in the fourth quarter.
888 is currently trading at 89.60 pence per share, down 5.03%, on the London Stock Exchange.
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