Shares in video game developer and publisher TinyBuild (TBLD:AIM) gained 1% to 267.2p after reporting maiden full-year results slightly ahead of consensus expectations.
Today’s results are the first since the company listed on AIM on 9 March (at 160p) and were well received with revenues up 35% to $37.6 million for the year to 31 December 2020 compared with analysts’ expectations of $35.6 million.
PROFITABLE GROWTH
Profitability and cash flow improved significantly with adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) almost doubling to $15.3 million, representing a margin of 40.6% compared with 27.4% in 2019.
The improvement was driven by higher margins as a greater proportion of revenues was generated from the company’s own intellectual property and reflecting the success of new releases such as Totally Reliable Delivery Service.
Cash generated from operations increased by 46% to $16.5 million although this was flattered by a 42% reduction in share-based compensation to $5.8 million.
Management said the last two years’ share-based payments were ‘unusually high’ reflecting fair value adjustments and a change in accounting policy. The company ended the period with net cash of $26.3 million.
Strong cash generation combined with the $50 million raised when the company listed will provide the firepower to accelerate organic growth and support the merger and acquisition strategy.
TinyBuild published five new games during 2020 and acquired three game studios for $1.3 million.
After the period end the company purchased, We're Five Games, the Minneapolis developer of Totally Reliable Delivery Service and the Russia based developer of Black Skylands (due for release this year), Hungry Couch.
Today TinyBuild also announced the acquisition of DogHelm which developed the highly popular game Streets of Rogue. The company announced that Nick Van Dyk had been appointed a non-executive director.
Van Dyk brings over 20 years' experience in the entertainment industry having been senior vice president at Walt Disney and was Co-President of Activision Blizzard Studios from 2015-to- 2019.
POSITIVE OUTLOOK
The company has a strong roster with 25 new games in development including a sequel to the highly successful Hello Neighbour, a graphic novel based on the game and a multi-game spin-off called Hello Engineer.
The board said it remained confident the company was on track to deliver results ‘at least in line’ with expectations.
Chief executive Alex Nichiporchik told Shares that there were no signs of the accelerated growth in gaming seen during lockdown slowing down.
