Keywords Studios Share Discussion Threads

[aimingupward2] 23/4/2019 08:45

Well, that’s a pleasing start to the week. Excellent.

[rivaldo] 23/4/2019 07:20

Another small but perfectly formed acquisition today - this time in Japan, with plenty of potential given its speciality in Japanese mobile gaming and its existing and continuing sales to former parent company Ankama:



Extract:

"Christopher Kennedy, Regional Managing Director - Asia of Keywords Studios commented:

"We are thrilled to welcome Guillaume and the Wizcorp team to join our fast-growing operations in Tokyo where we already employ 300 people. Japan is one of the world's most significant game development hubs and has a long history in this industry. Keywords is excited at the opportunities Wizcorp will bring the Group and its clients in the Japanese market as it becomes the latest member of our global Engineering service line. Wizcorp's HTML5 expertise is a valuable extension to our console, mobile and PC games development skills, which is particularly interesting in the context of Snap's recent launch of its HTML5 based gaming platform.

"We look forward to replicating the success of our previous transaction with our long-standing client, Ankama, which saw us acquire their 23 people strong captive player support operation in Manila in March 2016 before building it into a multi-client player support hub that now employs 700 people. We see a strong opportunity to accelerate Wizcorp's growth by building on its existing services for some of Ankama's game development needs and providing it with opportunities to work with Keywords' extensive client base."

[aimingupward2] 17/4/2019 15:12

LTG is another, alphabet, and of course FEVR.

[alphabeta4] 16/4/2019 16:51

Bit off topic but I do think whilst remaining objective we should be proud of international success stories like KWS. Yes it's on AIM but it could easily be a FTSE 250 company if it wanted to be. JD. is another (if very different animal) that I also hold which also reported today and looks to have made a good start at conquering the US.
Shame there aren't more of these but it's nice to be on the register for both.

[quepassa] 16/4/2019 13:34

Highly regarded Edison Research have just today released a very bullish Update.

all imo. dyor.
qp

[scooper72] 16/4/2019 12:43

It was in the Times as well - but what came across from the article was more the reach of the company. Made it sound more like a blue chip than an AIM company.

[bigbigdave] 16/4/2019 08:08

Thanks cf456, all in the price then :o)

[cf456] 16/4/2019 07:59

It's not new news. It was all in the results the other day.



"The Company has previously declared final dividends and certain interim dividends relating to the financial years 2014 to 2016 without having had sufficient distributable reserves in the holding company as required by the Companies Act 2016 due to a failure to make the necessary upstream distributions from subsidiaries to the Company despite such reserves being available. This was recognised during 2017 and a major distribution exercise was undertaken to rectify the problem.

In addition to the above, no interim accounts were filed at Companies House prior to the payment of interim dividends previously paid by the Company in the years 2013 to 2018. This was identified by the Board in August 2018 and legal advice obtained.

It is important to make clear that no party has been or is in a worse position as a result of these oversights.

The Company is seeking authority to release all relevant parties from any potential liability via a specific shareholder resolution to be put to the shareholders at the 2019 AGM. Accordingly, the appropriate resolution, if passed, will authorise the Company to enter into deeds of release to put all relevant parties in the position in which they were always intended to be had the relevant dividends been made in accordance with the Act."

[bigbigdave] 16/4/2019 07:56

No RNS but doubt it will go unnoticed.

[newtothisgame3] 16/4/2019 06:07

#Keywords #Studios, which provides services to computer games developers, said that it had breached the Companies Act with a series of payouts between 2014 and 2016. #KWS

[rivaldo] 15/4/2019 08:44

From the FT today - games subscriptions to become a "multibillion dollar business" for Apple:



Extracts:

"Apple spends hundreds of millions on Arcade video game service

Gaming could generate more revenues than TV or news subscriptions

Apple is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to secure new video games for its forthcoming Arcade subscription service, according to several people familiar with the deals.

The substantial outlay to developers shows how seriously Apple is taking games as a new source of subscription revenues, despite the public paying more attention to its star-studded push into television and news.

It also reflects the increasing competition in Silicon Valley for exclusive rights to the best content, as the iPhone maker bids against other new games platforms from Google and Tencent, as well as the console makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft."

"Some analysts predict games subscriptions could become a multibillion-dollar business for Apple within a few years. But to establish itself in the market, Apple is having to make substantial upfront investments without knowing whether Arcade will be a success.

Several people involved in the project’s development say Apple is spending several million dollars each on most of the more than 100 games that have been selected to launch on Arcade, with its total budget likely to exceed $500m. The games service is expected to launch later this year.

That compares with the $1bn that Apple was said in 2017 to have budgeted for original content for TV+, though analysts believe that its video spending has already exceeded that level."

[windsor430] 12/4/2019 13:29

Regained its momentum - a lot of others riding high (like this was) until the Oct pull back have stuttered - glad KWS is proving its worth again.

[alphabeta4] 12/4/2019 09:18

This must be hurting the shorts, if indeed they're still around. It will be interesting to see the short interest figures over the next few days (they normally run 3 working days behind). Over 2% of the shares were traded yesterday, which was actually more than on results day so the rise is on chunky volume. IMO it could get interesting here if they're rushing to the exit.

[aimingupward2] 11/4/2019 16:41

Today's uncrossing trade at 1393p is, again, clearly above the offer closing price.

[aimingupward2] 10/4/2019 19:16

And the uncrossing trade at 1355p, 7p above the closing offer price, bodes well for a good start tomorrow.

[gareth004] 10/4/2019 16:11

Absolutely, think the people have got wind of this one..

[alphabeta4] 10/4/2019 16:05

Hmm, interesting move - to be flat all day then have a sudden rise suggests both a large buyer and seller around and the seller has been exhausted first. Could be a good sign as volume decent too - over 1% of shares already traded today.

[pepsiman1] 09/4/2019 20:47

Short tracker shows JPMorgan now short less than 0.5%

[togglebrush] 09/4/2019 12:53

Re: FY18 analyst presentation
'
Many Thanks tomps2 for the link … as you say a superb presentation.

[rivaldo] 09/4/2019 12:21

Berenberg say Buy today and increase their target price to 1600p:



Thanks Tomps2, sounds great - will catch up with the presentation later.

[tomps2] 09/4/2019 09:21

Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) FY18 analyst presentation given yesterday by Andrew Day, CEO & David Broderick, CFO.



A superb presentation. Really worth a watch. KWS keep on doing it very well. The market is growing at 9% a year, outsourcing is still less than 50%, so lots of market to grow, across many services lines. Clients are up selling to multiple service lines. They now supply 5 service lines to Fortnite! (Benefitting from being game agnostic.) Still a sector with loads of tiny players, so ripe for consolidate. Andrew goes into depth about each of the service lines. There are case studies of integration of VMC, Art service line and audio service line. And, you get all the analysts Q&A. It's long but worth it, even if you just skim through it.

[rivaldo] 09/4/2019 08:18

And from Goodbody.....large acquisitions are on the way from existing resources:

"Keywords Studios could target higher ticket size deals this year, given its strong balance sheet, Goodbody says. The Irish provider of technical services to the videogames industry says it has a healthy pipeline of acquisition opportunities, with a particular focus on building marketing, engineering and audio services. An untapped credit line of more than EUR100 million signed last year gives Keywords balance-sheet room to continue to pursue acquisitions, Goodbody says. The brokerage expects Keywords to spend EUR60 million on M&A this year. "Part of the attraction of Keywords, is its ability to continually unearth opportunities to consolidate a fragmented outsourced services market for video games production," Goodbody says."

[robow] 09/4/2019 08:17

and also from yesterday's Citywire

Keyword Studios (KWS)
Who’s trading? Citywire AA-rated Richard Power

The trade: Octopus’ micro-cap stock picker upped his stake in computer game translator Keywords Studios from 5.9% of shares to 6% worth £43 million at a price of £11.26.

How have the shares performed? Shares in Keyword have near halved since October last year, falling from a peak above £20. They remain almost 430% higher over the last three years, however.

What does the company say? Factoring in a solid diet of acquisitions the Irish company reported a 72% boost to revenue in the first half of last year to €110 million (£93.5 million) and a robust profit margin of 37.4%, with pre-tax profits rising 67% to €16 million.

What’s the outlook? The plunge in Keywords’ value has coincided with investor fears about the impact of the free-to-use gaming phenomena Fortnite on sector margins, with short interest in the stock rising from zero to a steady 4% in the last six months. Liberum initiated coverage this month on a buy at £12.45. The shares closed at £13.26 on Friday, up 60p on the day.

[rivaldo] 09/4/2019 07:49

More re Liberum's upgrade:



"Keywords to benefit from gaming changes, says Liberum

A strong set of full-year results shows that video games platform Keywords Studios (KWS) looks set to benefit from changes in the market, says Liberum.

Revenues for 2018 of £217 million, representing like-for-like growth of 10%, were in line with consensus. Gross margins grew to 38%, while adjusted earnings came in at £38 million, 1% ahead of forecasts.

Keywords had also seen a positive start to the year with important contract wins, including the acquisition of GetSocial, enhancing the platform’s cloud-based solutions and games analytics services.

Analyst Alexandre Schmidt said the sudden and continued success of online game Fortnite was a tailwind for Keywords given its ‘considerable’ amount of work with the ‘important franchise’.

With Google, Tencent, Microsoft and Amazon all getting closer to launching their own streaming platforms, he said this could become a ‘major delivery channel sooner than expected’.

‘Keywords has stated that it is already working with major game makers and platform providers in order to port old and new games to the cloud,’ he said.

‘That, in combination with the increased reach of the cloud among gamers and higher game complexity (allowed by nearly unlimited processing power) should be a catalyst for higher demand for games services in the coming months.’

Schmidt revised the target share price to 1415p from 1245p."