Business
Q3 KPIs and trading update
Q3 KPIs and trading update.
About this update from Evoke Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n 888 Holdings plc\n14 November 2006\n\n\n14 November 2006\n\n 888 Holdings Public Limited Company ('888')\n\n Q3 2006 Key Performance Indicators and Trading Update\n\n888, one of the world's most popular online gaming companies, today provides the\nfollowing trading update for the third quarter of 2006 and cumulative results \nfor the nine months ended 30 September 2006.\n\nHighlights:\n\n* Accelerated growth outside the US with Net Gaming Revenue from non-US \n business up 34% at US$117 million for the first nine months of the year\n\n* Number of active non-US members reached 179,439, a 5% increase on Q2 2006 and \n 11% increase on Q3 2005\n\n* Liquid resources in excess of US$95 million (1)\n\n* Real money operations from the US suspended following the US Safe Port Act \n becoming effective\n\n* Implementation of group wide cost optimization plan following the suspension \n of the group's US activities resulting in a one-off expense of approximately \n US$6 million in second half 2006\n\n* New casino and poker offering released as well as new localized sites in \n Spanish and Danish\n\n(1) As at 10th November 2006 after payment of interim and special dividend and\n netting off all outstanding customer deposits\n\nCommenting on today's announcement, John Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, \nsaid:\n\n'The results released today demonstrate the resilience of our business model and\nare a direct result of careful implementation of our long standing strategy to\ndiversify our product offering and geographical spread. We are pleased with\nthese results in, what is typically the slowest quarter of the year. Despite the\nsuspension of our real money gaming operations in the US, following the \nenactment of the Safe Ports Act in October 2006, our business continues to be\nsound and exhibit healthy growth in non-US regions.\n\nAs a result of the significant change to our business environment we have\nembarked on a cost optimization programme across the group including a modest\nreduction in marketing and R&D which are key to our future accelerated growth.\nAs expected, despite this action our margins will suffer in the medium term\nuntil business volumes increase.\n\n888 is debt free and has ample liquid resources to both fund our operations and\nparticipate in attractive opportunities for market consolidation.'\n\nSet out below a...