peddlar
02 Apr 2018
Re: Full year results-9/04/18 ("Keywords Studios", "the Group"
Full year trading update Strong financial performance- strengthening our market leading position Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides an unaudited trading update for the year ended 31 December 2017, following a year of further strong organic growth and geographic expansion, complemented by a number of significant and successful acquisitions. The Board is pleased to announce that it expects revenues to be not less than €150m (FY16: €96.6m) and adjusted PBT* of at least €22.5m (FY16: €14.9m), both of which are comfortably ahead of consensus market expectations. Strong organic growth remains a feature of the Group's performance and this has been supplemented by acquisitions as the Group continues to deliver on its strategy in order to become the "go to" supplier of technical services to the global video games industry. The Group is now comprised of seven globally managed service lines operating from 42 production studios in 20 countries, compared to four service lines operating from five production studios in five countries at the time of our IPO in July 2013. ˙Hi, here is their trading update.Looks good; During the year, we welcomed eleven businesses into the Group across all its existing service lines as well as its newly established Engineering service line. 2017 saw two of the Group's largest acquisitions to date, VMC and Sperasoft, which have further strengthened our service offerings and client penetration and extended our geographic reach and access to talent. Sperasoft enabled our entry into Co-Development, in which multiple services including
missmolly
01 Apr 2018
Re: Full year results-9/04/18 Hi peddlar,No worries re: the datesDo you know where I can find the profits forecast?I did have some of these a while ago but sold, wish that I hadn't!All best, mm
peddlar
31 Mar 2018
Re: Full year results-9/04/18 You ae quite right,i mistakenly saw last years results timetable.Sorry.should be good on the day if they still make the profits forecast.
missmolly
31 Mar 2018
Full year results-9/04/18 Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group"Notice of Full Year Results Keywords Studios plc, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, will announce its full year results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2017 on Monday, 9 April 2018.An analyst presentation, hosted by Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer and David Broderick, Chief Financial Officer will be held at 9.30 am on 9 April at MHP's offices, 6 Agar Street, London, WC2N 4HN. If you would like to register to attend or to receive details of the webcast, please contact MHP Communications on +44 (0)20 3128 8710 or [email protected].
missmolly
31 Mar 2018
Re: Results on 4th - should that be the 9th? Hi peddlar,KWS said their full year results would be on the 9th April. This was in their RNS of 3rd of Marchmm
peddlar
30 Mar 2018
Results on 4th Hope this will pick up then.Nota mention of results in the papers,let alonee any comments
gretel
27 Mar 2018
Re: Peel Hunt initiate: Buy, 1850p target More on Peel Hunt's initiation, from Citywire:"Peel Hunt has initiated coverage of Keywords Studios (KWS), which offers outsourced services to the video games industry, and is growing twice as fast as its peers.Analyst Ashu Sony initiated coverage with an ‘add’ recommendation and target price of £18.50 on the shares, which fell 2.5% to £15.70 yesterday.Sony believes the company is ‘attractively positioned to corner the market’ thanks to its established position, ‘blue-chip’ client base, significant cross-selling opportunity, and ‘unmatched record of value-accretive mergers and acquisitions’.Based on his valuation methods the company is growing earnings ‘over twice as fast as the relevant peer group’ at 38% versus 15%. He said Keywords would ‘win out’ in its industry."
gretel
26 Mar 2018
Peel Hunt initiate: Buy, 1850p target Good news - Peel Hunt today initiate coverage with a Buy and an 1850p target:[link]
Aberdeen_investor
16 Mar 2018
Well Done Gretel I can see you’re a long termer here.Well done for sticking to this stock. Absolutely agree with you. The good stocks are normally quiet whilst the crazy money losing stocks are very busy. Keep the posts coming...I’m increasing my stake too on any dips..
donna blitzen
14 Mar 2018
My previous post Gretel, I’ve now found that ‘mginvestor’ has posted this same article on Advfn and I’ve been able to access it from there.
donna blitzen
14 Mar 2018
Re: Another great interview with the CEO gretel, I seem to be unable to reach the article you are quoting (several different attempts), so wonder if you could cut and paste it, or at least key paragraph(s), either here or on the Advfn site.Very many thanks.
Aberdeen_investor
14 Mar 2018
Re: Another great interview with the CEO Excellent article. Thanks for sharing...It really is exciting...Massive potential.. Although the valuation is approx a billion, this really could be the tip of the iceberg...The gaming industry is only heading one way...An interesting fact that I happened to stumble upon was although consumer spending has decreased, in this area (The gaming industry) it actually managed to grow..Good luck all
gretel
14 Mar 2018
Another great interview with the CEO Keywords Studios CEO Andrew Day explains why the company is so active with acquisitions #KWS @KeywordsStudios - thanks to @Chris_Dring & @GIBiz[link]
gretel
05 Mar 2018
Terrific new feature in Irish Times [link] great excerpts: "Keywords provides services to 23 of the top 25 most prominent games companies globally, including Tencent, Electronic Arts, Oculus, Supercell, Activision, Microsoft, Sega, Nintendo and Ubisoft." "Day says the company has only just begun, with plans underway for it to make several more acquisitions in 2018 and beyond."“This company is in a really good place and I believe we will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years. I think that in five years time we’ll be three times the size we currently are and that there will still be people wondering where we’re come from,” Day told The Irish Times on a recent visit to Dublin."“A lot of the competition is small so we’ve plenty of room to grow and there are lots of opportunities,” he added."
gretel
05 Mar 2018
Re: IC tip for KWS Here's the text of the IC's Buy tip (cheers mate):"The global video games market is expanding at a rapid pace with a compound annual growth rate of 8.2 per cent forecast between 2016 and 2020, which according to industry expert NewZoo, will increase the industry's size to $143.5bn (£102.3bn). The opportunity for companies offering services to video games makers, such as Keywords Studios (KWS), is even greater given a burgeoning trend towards outsourcing. And that's before even taking into consideration the attractions of Keywords' industry relationships (it counts 23 of the world's 25 best-known games companies as clients), its scale and its potential to continue to act as a consolidator in a “highly fragmented” market.Keywords' repertoire is extensive: it offers art services, software engineering, audio services, player support and localisation services – including language translation for international games.The company has consistently beaten forecasts. A recent trading update maintained this trend: revenues and adjusted pre-tax profits for the year to December 2017 will be “comfortably ahead of consensus market expectations”, reaching at least €150m and €22.5m, respectively, up from €96.6m and €14.9m. The top line was buoyed by strong organic growth, coming in at 20 per cent by FinnCap’s estimation – up from 16 per cent in 2016.Among the drivers of this is the move towards an outsourced development model, and Keywords’ emergence as the “go to” service provider. In turn, this is generating wider-reaching client agreements covering more of Keywords' services.Keywords has supplemented its underlying growth with acquisitions. Indeed, in 2017, its most transaction-heavy year to date, the company made 11 purchases across all of its service lines – collectively valued at $89m. The two largest were VMC and Sperasoft. The former, bought for $66.4m, enhances the group’s relatively nascent engineering segment. Having made $57.4m in adjusted sales and $6.4m in adjusted cash profits during the year to October 2017, it is expected to provide a significant boost to EPS in the first full year of ownership. Meanwhile, Sperasoft facilitates Keywords’ move into ‘co-development’ – whereby various services such as game programming and artwork are bundled together in the game development phase. Purchased for $27m in December, the business is expected to have grown revenues to around $20m during the 12 months ending December 2017 – up from $16m in 2016.Acquisitions have also helped Keywords to develop footholds in new territories, and the company has 42 facilities in 20 countries strategically located in Asia, the Americas and Europe.Of course, shopping requires cash. A £75m placing at 1,400p in October to fund the VMC deal provided an encouraging endorsement of the acquisition strategy from shareholders. Meanwhile, the group finished last year with net cash of around €12.2m and still had €16.7m left to draw from its rolling credit facility. This gives it plenty of leeway to continue its buying spree in 2018, although more equity fund-raisings to support any large deals would not be a surprise.IC ViewKeywords is rapidly consolidating within a huge but fragmented market. The resultant revenue and earnings momentum is encouraging. The high valuation suggests the market may now expect Keywords to exceed rather than just meet broker expectations. But, while such buoyant sentiment represents a risk in itself, we feel it is one worth taking given the exceptional growth prospects. Buy."
