Keywords revenues more than doubles to €37.3m

Keywords has reported a strong year in its latest financial results, enjoying revenues of €37.3m in 2014.

The group’s revenues are 130 per cent up from its 2013 revenues of €16.2m. Also more than doubled is the firm’s adjusted profit before tax, which rose by 104 per cent to €5.1m.

Net cash was down from €15.3m to €11m, largely thanks to an €8.9m cash consideration for Keywords’ various acquisitions over the past year, plus €3m repayment in Babel Media borrowings, €1.5m of acquisition and integration expenses and €7.3m raised in a Placing.

The acquisitions were a major driver of Keywords’ growth in 2014. In January 2014, the firm purchased audio services outfit Liquid Violent, followed by rival services provider Babel Media the following month. In May, Keywords brought another audio firm – Binari Sonori – into the fold, with Lakshya Digital acquired in October.

Keywords has since acquired Alchemic Dream and Reverb back in January.

The firm is keen to highlight that, even without any of these acquisitions, its revenues rose by 23 per cent last year.

CEO Andrew Day said: “2015 was a significant year in the development of Keywords: in addition to delivering organic growth of over 20 per cent, the effect of the six acquisitions made during 2014 and early 2015 has been to strengthen our leading market position in localisation and testing, to provide scale to our audio services offering and to extend our range of services upstream to art creation and downstream to customer support.”

Day added that the acquired firms are “integrating well” with the rest of Keywords’ empire, and that the company expects 2015 to be the ”first solid, post-transition year” in the console game sector, which should help the sector return to “more normal trading patterns”. 

Combined with a strong mobile games business – thanks largely to partnerships with leaders such as Supercell, King, Machine Zone, Zynga and Kabam – Day is optimistic about the year ahead.

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