Aristocrat Leisure Limited has announced a 16.8 percent increase in profit (NPAT), to AU$723.3 million ($484.5 million) during the first half of its fiscal year, with profit rising across its three main arms: Gaming, Pixel United and Interactive.
According to results released on Thursday, Aristocrat Gaming’s North America operations brought in some $22.3 million in profit, despite outright sales declining by 9 percent. Rest of World profit grew by some 29.1 percent – to AU$179.3 million ($120.1 million), ‘driven mainly by growth in Asia due to strong game performance on recent releases, recovery in the sale of replacement units and product mix benefits’.
Asia revenue and profit ‘doubled compared to the prior corresponding period driven by strong game performance on recent releases, including Dragon Link and Bao Zhu Zhao Fu’.
The group also makes a special note that its Dragon Link product won the Best Slot Product (land-based) award at the 2024 Asia Gaming Awards – organized by AGB.
Overall Rest of World contributed some AU$376.7 million ($252.3 million) to the group’s revenue, up 6.6 percent.
In Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), the group retained its market-leading ship share, at 38 percent, selling some 4,033 units.
Overall group revenue was up by 6.1 percent during the six-month period, nearing AU$3.27 billion ($2.2 billion), while EBITDA rose an impressive 17.6 percent, to AU$1.19 billion ($797 million).
Speaking of the results, Aristocrat’s CEO, Trevor Croker noted that “The Group delivered strong revenue and EBITDA growth over the half. This was underpinned by record Aristocrat Gaming performance, led by an exceptional North America Gaming Operations result, and strong growth in Aristocrat Interactive, while Pixel United achieved improved profitability despite mixed market conditions’.
The group’s Pixel United segment was its second-largest revenue contributor – at 41 percent, with $875 million in revenue – still a drop of 1.8 percent yearly. But segment profit was up 16.8 percent year-on-year, to $306.9 million. Bookings were down 1 percent yearly, to $877.2 million.
The segment saw strong growth in its social casino area, with franchise bookings up 2 percent compared to a market decline of 2 percent.
Aristocrat Interactive, the group’s newly launched segment (April 2024) which merged the Anaxi and NeoGames businesses, saw a 48.6 percent increase in revenue, to $71.9 million.
Profit surged by 207.7 percent yearly, to $20 million amongst ‘growth in CXS revenues and continued scaling of iGaming across North America and Europe’.Looing ahead, the group notes it expects to deliver profit growth over the full fiscal year (ending September 30th) based on ‘continued strong market share, revenue and profit growth from Aristocrat Gaming’. It also plans to focus on market share and investment efficiency for Pixel United and accelerate the performance of Aristocrat Interactive.
