Business
Preliminary Results
Preliminary Results.
About this update from Livermore Investments Group Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Empire Online Limited\n04 April 2006\n\n\nEMPIRE ONLINE LIMITED MAIDEN PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2005\n\nEmpire Online Limited (the 'Company' or 'Empire Online'), a leading\nmulti-channel online gaming and marketing services company, today announces its\nmaiden preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2005.\n\nOPERATING HIGHLIGHTS:\n\n• Successful acquisitions of Club Dice casino and bingo platforms and \n Noble Poker, the largest poker operator on the iPoker network\n\n• Final dividend of US6.8cents (3.9pence) per Ordinary Share\n\n• Successful listing on AIM market raising $222m in gross proceeds\n\n• Assignment of Empire Online's PartyGaming related 'skin' operations \n to PartyGaming for $250 million cash\n\nFINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:\n\n• Reported net gaming revenues up 102% to $97.4m (2004: $48.3m.)\n Reported profit after amortisation and non recurring charges before \n taxation up 57% to $41.2m (2004: $26.2m)\n\n• Pro forma* net gaming revenues up 61% to $105.2m (2004: $65.2m)\n\n• Pro forma* gross profit up 33% to $51.9m (2004: $38.9m)\n\n• Pro forma* profit before amortisation and non recurring charges up \n 33% to $50.1m (2004: $37.7m)\n\n• Active Real Money Players at the end of 2005 rose by 59% to 165,310 \n (2004: 104,177)\n\nCommenting on the results, Noam Lanir, CEO of Empire Online Limited, said: '2005\nwas an extremely busy year for Empire with our successful listing on the AIM\nmarket of the London Stock Exchange and our evolution from a marketing services\nprovider to a successful online gaming platform. We are extremely pleased with\nthe performance of the Company during the period, and are very encouraged with\nthe growth in both our poker and casino offerings globally and in particular in\ngeographical territories outside of the USA.\n\nThe Company added around 450 new real money sign ups per day in the first 4\nweeks of March in the new financial year. The Board reiterates its confidence\nin achieving an EBITDA of $37m for the year to 31 December 2006.'\n\n*The pro-forma financial information has been prepared so as to provide\ncomparable information for the transitional year of 2005 during which certain\nassets were acquired by the Group from Tradal Ltd, a related company\nincorporated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Further details are disclosed\nwithin ...