Codemasters Group Holdings PLC Year End Trading Update (9750I)

TIDMCDM

RNS Number : 9750I

Codemasters Group Holdings PLC

07 April 2020

7 April 2020

Codemasters Group Holdings Plc

("Codemasters" or the "Company")

Year End Trading Update

Codemasters Group Holdings Plc (AIM:CDM), the award winning British video game developer and publisher specialising in high quality racing games, is pleased to provide the following trading update for the year ended 31 March 2020 ("FY20").

The Board is pleased to announce that overall trading in the second half of the year has remained strong. The Company anticipates reporting FY20 revenues of approximately GBP76 million (FY19: GBP71.2m), with Adjusted EBITDA (1) comfortably ahead of expectations at c.GBP18.1 million (FY19: GBP18.7m), including a loss of c.GBP0.9m from Slightly Mad Studios ("SMS"), acquired in November 2019. The Company has no debt and as at 31 March 2020 had gross cash of c.GBP25.5 million (31 March 2019: GBP18.2m).

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the sales mix, particularly in the last few weeks of the financial year. The shift to digital delivery has accelerated greatly, which has contributed to higher margins, with traditional retail and box sales impacted, exacerbated by the closure of the majority of game retailers. The Company continued to deliver on its business development initiatives and signed a number of agreements during the second half of the year. Minor delays associated with concluding certain of these agreements means that the majority of the revenue from them will be recognised in the new financial year.

In line with government guidelines all our teams have moved to working from home as the health and wellbeing of our employees remains our priority. Productivity and the performance of our systems and processes has been extremely reassuring to date. SMS already operated a fully remote working model. The Company does not expect to see any material disruption or loss of efficiency as a consequence of this change.

The Company will provide a further update regarding the release date for its Fast & Furious Crossroads launch once confirmed.

Codemasters intends to publish its final results for the year ended 31 March 2020 in June 2020.

Notes:

(1) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure used by the Company, which is defined as profit before finance costs on borrowings, tax, capitalisation of development costs, depreciation, amortisation and non-recurring items.

This announcement is released by Codemasters Group Holdings plc and contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 ("MAR"), and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

For the purposes of MAR and Articles 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1055, this announcement is being made on behalf of the Company by Rashid Varachia, Chief Financial Officer.

Codemasters Group Holdings Plc

Via Alma PR

Frank Sagnier, CEO

Rashid Varachia, CFO

Liberum Capital Limited

(Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker) [phone]

Neil Patel

Cameron Duncan

Ed Phillips

William Hall

Jefferies International Limited

(Joint Broker) [phone]

Ed Matthews

William Brown

Alma PR Ltd [phone]

Josh Royston [e-mail]

Rebecca Sanders-Hewitt

Helena Bogle

Sam Modlin

Notes to Editors

ABOUT CODEMASTERS:

Codemasters (AIM:CDM) is an award winning British video game developer and publisher with over 30 years of heritage. The company specialises in high quality racing games including DiRT, GRID and the BAFTA award-winning official F1(R) series of videogames. In December 2019, Codemasters acquired Slightly Mad Studios, creators and developers of award-winning IP including the Project CARS franchise and Fast & Furious Crossroads.

Codemasters' LEI number is: 213800NOITSDQVNP5W91

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April 07, 2020 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)