AGM Statement

RNS Number : 3749U

Playtech Limited

14 May 2008

 



Playtech Ltd ('Playtech' or 'the Group')

Annual General Meeting Statement

At the Annual General Meeting of Playtech Ltd, to be held this morning,   the Group's Chairman, Roger Withers, will make the following statement:

'The year under review has been one of significant progress for the Group with all key

performance indicators exceeding targets. The financial performance for the year ended 31 December 2007 showed strong growth with total revenues for the year of $103.6million, representing an increase of 86% on the $55.6million achieved in 2006 (excluding US derived revenues of $34.5 million). The adjusted net profit before tax (which omits significant non-cash charges relating to the CY Foundation and AsianLogic investments, the Tribeca non-US assets acquisition, and the stock option charges), was an impressive US$70 million (68% of total revenues). This strong performance reflects Playtech's  market leading position and the quality of its products and services. The Company was pleased to recommend the payment of a final dividend of 9.9¢ per share. This follows the interim dividend payment of 6.1¢ per share making a total dividend of 16.0¢ per share. The overall dividend is in line with our stated policy and demonstrates our continued confidence in the Group's businesses.

The growth of the business was driven by two key factors: our geographical presence in growing markets and our ability to deliver comprehensive, best of breed solutions for our licensees. Our relationship with licensees goes beyond the purely commercial - we help to drive their growth by providing innovative products that meet their market demands. This is an ever-evolving  process whereby Playtech is constantly developing, marketing and launching new products to ensure our partner customers maintain their competitive advantage in fast-moving markets. That is why we believe that Playtech is the world's leading provider of software solutions to the online gaming industry.

A number of key achievements were made during the year. The first came when the Group's monthly revenues exceeded those achieved prior to the withdrawal of the Group's licensees from the US market. The second saw Playtech's iPoker network become the world's largest independent online poker network. The Group also successfully completed the migration and integration of the non US assets of the Tribeca poker network onto Playtech's iPoker platform. This acquisition has been highly beneficial to the Group and has contributed greatly to Playtech's ongoing success. The Group continues to win new licensees, with fifteen added during the year under review. Eight of these were the former Tribeca poker licensees as well as notable additions Mansion and CY Foundation, both of which are focusing on the rapidly expanding Asia-Pacific markets.

Playtech is committed to growing and diversifying its business portfolio - both geographically and by product type. During 2007 the Group continued to place considerable resources into enhancing its product portfolio. The Casino product remains Playtech's flagship offering and continues to show impressive growth. The Group continues to invest in its poker product, which has rapidly become a significant contributor to Playtech's financial performance. During the year the Group also completed the development of an updated version of the downloadable Bingo product and a new Bingo flash version.  We are committed to offering our licensees multiple distribution channels, and a new mobile product was launched with one of our licensees during the year under review.

The development of products which are tailored towards specific markets is a key component of our geographical diversification strategy. During the first half of 2007, the Group focused on converting the majority of its downloadable casino games into flash technology and introduced a flash version of our bingo product, which is the preferred format in Europe and the UK sportsbook market in particular. In addition, we completed the upgrade of the live gaming software, which is a key offering for the Asian market. We also focused on the development of Asian P2P games, the first of which we 'soft-launched' at the end of the first quarter of 2008.  

We also continued to upgrade the Playtech back end system, which is the cornerstone of Playtech's software offering. This unified system contains the tools and features which enable our licensees to offer multiple products on different platforms and monitor all activity from a single interface in real time. Furthermore, Playtech is one of the few providers which is able to offer licensees the full range of gaming and management products and its backend is considered to be the best in the industry. This strength was clearly demonstrated when the migrated poker licensees from Tribeca were able to offer casino side games on the online poker room software. This  has significantly enhanced the revenues that the licensees are able to generate. 

The Group maintains a strong pipeline of additional games and products. One notable example is  the Asian P2P games which were soft launched in Q1 2008. Furthermore, development of the Flash Poker product has now been completed and is under testing.  The product is expected to be fully released to all poker licensees during Q3.

As I mentioned during the preliminary results in March of this year, the online gaming market continues to grow on a global scale across all major economic regions and as such is still a young and growing marketplace. There is much to play for and Playtech's world leading position means it is ideally placed to benefit further from growth in all of its operations. Our focus is on innovation, imagination, a diversified business model and strength as a software and platform provider. With a strong balance sheet and cash resources, Playtech is well placed to make strategic acquisitions and will be opportunistic in its approach. The Group will continue to follow its successful strategy of organic and acquisitive growth.

Since last year's AGM, I have been delighted to welcome to the Board both Mor Weizer and Guy Emodi as Group CEO and CFO respectively. Both have contributed greatly to the Group's success during the year and I'd like to thank them, and my fellow directors, for their outstanding commitment throughout 2007.

I would now like to provide a short update on current trading conditions. As was announced at the Group's Q1 KPI announcement on the 6 May 2008, Playtech has enjoyed an outstanding start to 2008 registering impressive month on month revenue growth. The Group's growth in revenue during Q1 has continued into April with over 9% growth in revenues over and above the monthly average revenues in the first quarter of 2008. The licensee pipeline is also strong and the momentum of Q1 is continuing into Q2 with the signing of three new licensees. The Group expects to sign additional new licensees during the year which should further strengthen its revenue generation in the future. 

Playtech will further support its future growth with the provision of new products to its licensees, which will include the launch of the Asian P2P games in Q2 and the flash poker product in Q3.  

The Group continues to pursue significant business opportunities across all the regulated markets and the Board is highly confident regarding the Group's trading performance for 2008 and beyond.

Finally I'd like to thank Playtech's management and staff. They are Playtech's greatest  strength and I thank them for their professionalism and hard work which has played such an important part in the excellent results that the company has consistently delivered over the years.'

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For Further Information:

Mor Weizer, CEO, Playtech Ltd 

Guy Emodi, CFO, Playtech Ltd

c/o Bell Pottinger  

www.playtech.com                                                         Tel: [phone]  

Tim Mickley

Collins Stewart                                                               Tel: [phone]

David Rydell / Chris Hamilton

Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial                          Tel: [phone]  

About Playtech 

Playtech develops unified software platforms for the online gambling industry, primarily targeting existing online operators wanting to upgrade their system; sportsbooks looking to diversify and land-based operators making their online debut. Playtech gaming applications - online casino, poker, bingo, mobile gaming, live gaming, land-based kiosk networks and fixed-odds games - are fully intercompatible and can be freely incorporated as stand-alone applications, accessed and funded by players through the same user account and managed by the operator by means of a single powerful management interface. Founded in 1999, Playtech has over 750 personnel distributed globally, around seventy five percent of whom are engaged in research and development of current and future gaming technologies. 

Website: www.playtech.com

 

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