Aristocrat shares surge on $500m share buyback

Chief executive Trevor Croker said he would not “get into the size” of potential targets Aristocrat wanted to acquire, adding that Aristocrat was not “constrained” to a number in its pursuit of the “build and buy” strategy it implemented after the failed tilt at Playtech.

“Our priorities at the moment are to buy, scale and enter the RMG business and that remains pretty clear. We’ve been transparent about it,” he said.

The Playtech deal was supposed to set Aristocrat up for a new phase of growth over the next five years, taking the company beyond its two key businesses – selling gaming machines to casinos and venues around the world, and developing online social games where players do not gamble real money – to online RMG, which includes any games played online for cash or where money is wagered on the outcome of a game.

But Mr Croker insists the in-house “build and buy” strategy will work and expects to be live with gaming products in two jurisdictions in the US by the end of the year.

He said returning the $500 million to investors via the buyback, which is set to be completed on an “opportunistic basis” from June, was a good way to give back cash to investors at a time of “excess cash flow”.

The company has announced that it will pay a 26¢ interim dividend, as revenue and statutory profit surged in the six months to the end of March, beating analysts’ expectations.

Tough operating conditions

Its shares rose 6.7 per cent to $33.73 and net profit after tax jumped 46.5 per cent to $530.7 million, driven by a solid recovery in casinos’ “land-based markets” following the COVID-19 shutdowns across 2020 and 2021.

The company has faced difficult operating conditions, including having to help its staff flee Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, an industry-wide drop in mobile game demand after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, and the global supply chain crunch.

Operating revenue jumped 23.1 per cent to $2.7 billion, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, after excluding the impact of significant items, jumped 30.1 per cent to $970.3 million.

MST Financial said in a note to investors that the half-year results had “smashed expectations”. Aristocrat’s preferred net profit after tax and amortisation hit $580.1 million, up by 41 per cent year-on-year, coming in well above MST’s estimate of $523 million.

“We believe shareholders will be pleased to see this, given Aristocrat’s excess cash position and current price weakness,” MST wrote.