Bigben Interactive

Press release

24 April 2017, 18:00

Annual sales for FY 2016/17 up by 2.9% at 208.1 M€

Q4 sales up by 30.7%

Confirmation of pluri-annual Targets

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            (1)   Non audited data

Another year of growth

Over FY 2016/2017 (ended March 31) Bigben Interactive achieved a turnover of 208.1 M€ up 2.9% compared to the previous year, in line with targets set by the Group. This growth is driven by the Gaming and Mobile business segments.

GAMING

•  Gaming recorded sales up by 8.2% at 69.7 M€ boosted by the sales of the new REVOLUTION Pro Controller under PlayStation®4 license from SONY.
   
  • Publishing: This strongly profitable segment achieved 24.6 M€ sales i.e. a slight (1.2%) growth when compared to previous financial year. According to plan Horizon 2018, Publishing pursued the development of its catalogue with the release of 6 games. However this segment faced a high comparison basis with FY 2015/2016 which benefited from the major success of the WRC5 game. Digital sales which provide leverage for the profitability of the catalogue, were up by 18.5%.
     
  • Accessories: This segment showed a strong growth of sales up by 17.3% at 35.9 M€. This achievement was supported by the large success of the REVOLUTION Pro Controller (nearly 200,000 units already delivered since launch) and by the very promising start of the new accessory range for the Nintendo SWITCH^TM console hardware. In addition the segment enjoyed a growing contribution from sales of Plantronics® headsets and Nacon® PC peripherals.

MOBILE

• The Mobile business segments achieved sales of 105.5 M€ up by 3.6% when compared to previous financial year. Force Glass^TM established itself as a reference brand with a ca. 30% market share in value for screen protections of smartphones. In addition the success of the new smartphones including iPhone 7 and both Samsung® Galaxy S7 and S8 boosted the sales of high end accessories developed by the Group.

                         
AUDIO

• Faced with a highly competitive market for sound towers, the Audio business recorded sales down by 8.6% at 32.9 M€, this drop masking the growing success of the Thomson® licensed products (+ 40.4%) under a licensing contract which has been extended until the end of 2020.

Very strong growth in 4^th quarter (+ 30.7%)

In the 4^th quarter of FY 2016/2017 (from January 1 to March 31, 2017), Bigben recorded sales of 51.3 M€ up by 30.7 % when compared to the same period of previous financial year.
This achievement was supported by the Gaming business which doubled its sales over the period with 23.3M€ thanks to the success of the REVOLUTION Pro Controller (nearly 170,000 units delivered in the quarter) and the launch of 2Dark and FlatOut video games. The Mobile business saw the ongoing rise of the Force Glass^TM protection screens and the success of accessories buoyed by the expectations linked to the launch of Samsung® Galaxy S8. Audio sales were down by 11.2% in spite of the growth of Thomson® sales (+17.4%).

Confirmation of a Current Operating Profit exceeding 5% of sales

Banking on a more profitable product mix, Bigben confirms for 2016/2017 financial year its target of a Current Operating Result exceeding 5% of sales against 3.6 % in FY 2015/2016.

Outlook 2017/2018

According to the Horizon 2018 plan, the Group expects for FY 2017/2018 a faster sales growth driven by the Gaming business with the launch of ten new games in Publishing (starting with the release of Hunting Simulator in the 1^st quarter), with the REVOLUTION Pro Controller and the Nintendo SWITCH^TM, console format which promises to be a real commercial opportunity for Bigben both for its Accessory range and its Publishing business.

Boosted by the ongoing growth of the sales of high value added products, Bigben confirms its target of a Current Operating Profit in excess of 7% for FY2017/2018.

The projections for FY 2017/2018 and the « Bigben 2020 » medium term strategy in the wake of the "Horizon 2018" plan will be disclosed together with the 2016/2017 year-end results during the annual results presentation to be held in Paris on 30 May 2017.
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Upcoming publication:

• Annual results 2016/17 : Monday 29 May 2017

      Press release after close of the stock market