Keywords is an international technical service provider to the global Video Game Industry with offices in Dublin, Tokyo, Seattle, Montreal and Rome. Working on a worldwide basis, we provide a range of linguistic, testing, and quality control services to Video Game Developers and Publishers alike.

Keywords is focused 100% on the localization and testing of video games. Our experience and dedication to this field allows us to provide our clients with games that connect to their core audience, no matter what language they speak.

With our principal operations hub in Dublin, Keywords works globally. Our business is international in every sense so we are available to clients in North America and Japan just as we are available to those based in Europe. Providing our clients access to us so we can service their needs is tremendously important. There are points of contact ready to speak with our customers during all global business hours.

http://www.keywordsintl.com/en

Shares - China's decision to lift a ban on gaming consoles has huge significance for video games translation specialist Keywords Studios (KWS:AIM). It should result in a wealth of English - language games being adapted for sale in the country, A domestic games development market is also expected to flourish, triggering the need for translation from Chinese into a range of Eastern and Western languages. The ban was lifted on 8 Jan. Keywords already has proven skills in the Chinese market, meaning it should be well placed to capitalise on the new business opportunity.

Acquisition

RNS


RNS Number : 7762X

Keywords Studios PLC

16 January 2014




16 January 2014


Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")


Acquisition of Liquid Violet Ltd


Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of Liquid Violet Ltd (Liquid Violet), a video games voice production services company.



The acquisition is in line with Keywords Studios' strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration or service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to generate synergies.



Under the terms of the acquisition, which will be immediately earnings enhancing, Keywords Studios has paid an initial cash consideration of £300,000 with a further £1.3 million payable in cash contingent upon Liquid Violet achieving certain financial targets in the three years to 31 March 2016.



Liquid Violet specialises in the management, on behalf of major video game publishers including Blizzard Entertainment and 2K, of the pre production and post production stages of localised voice-over assets for incorporation in the finished games. Formed in 2011 and based in London, it has established a growing base of blue-chip clients in the games industry due to its strong reputation for efficiently delivering large volumes of high quality audio assets, working with a multitude of audio studios across the globe.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"We are pleased to have acquired Liquid Violet, which occupies an attractive niche, with healthy margins and good growth prospects and which will extend the Group's audio services offering to its global customer base. We expect the use of audio in video games to grow thanks to the much enhanced capabilities of the new generation of consoles that were launched in November 2013 and as the capabilities of mobile devices continue to develop.

"We look forward to assisting the growth of Liquid Violet, as part of the broader based Group, and to exploring the cross selling opportunities with the new client relationships that Liquid Violet brings to the Group.

"We believe that there is a clear opportunity for Keywords to build on its existing relationships with many of the major games companies by extending its service offering or geographical coverage within the highly fragmented games services industry, both organically and by acquisition, and we continue to make good progress in reviewing a number of high quality acquisition opportunities."

Acquisition

RNS


RNS Number : 2881A

Keywords Studios PLC

18 February 2014






18 February 2014







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")



Acquisition of Babel Media Ltd

Operational synergies and enlarged global presence



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of Babel Media Ltd ("Babel"), a leading provider of outsourced video games services with operations in the UK, Canada and India, from Quatrro Global Services Pvt. Ltd. and The D. E. Shaw Group.



The acquisition is in line with Keywords Studios' strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration or service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to generate synergies.



Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be materially earnings enhancing in the first year, Keywords Studios is paying the sellers and settling the financing obligations of Babel to a total of £5,369,000. This is being satisfied as to £2,215,000 by the issue of 1,516,944 new shares in Keywords Studios at a price of 145.994 pence per share (being the volume weighted average price over the preceding 5 trading days) and cash amounts to settle indebtedness to a total of £3,154,000.



Founded in 1999, Babel Media is one of the most recognised technical services brands in the video games industry. The unaudited management accounts for the 10 months to 31 January 2014 show Babel has achieved revenues of £6.4m and EBITDA of £0.4m; it has net assets of £1.44m after adjusting for the loans being repaid.



Babel's strengths are in Localisation Testing, Functional Testing and the Translation of video games for leading video game publishers and developers. Combining the two businesses will significantly broaden Keywords' function testing capability (which accounted for less than 3% of Group turnover in the first half of the current financial year) whilst providing substantial operational synergies with Keywords existing Localisation Testing and Translation activities and extending the number of client relationships across the combined Group. The business will be integrated into Keywordsduring the course of 2014 and, by bringing Keywords' operational efficiency to Babel's strong brand, we anticipate the business delivering significant margin improvement as part of the wider group.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"The acquisition of Babel brings together two of the leading video games testing and localisation providers, firmly establishing Keywords as the market leader in its field, with operations across Dublin, Rome, Montreal, Seattle, Tokyo and now in New Delhi.

"The acquisition will not only generate considerable cost synergies but it will provide greater scale and breadth of services for our combined interactive media client base globally. Adding India to our global locations, with its significant cost advantages, is another important step in both enhancing Group margins and enabling our clients and prospects to benefit from a range of services differentiated by cost, flexibility, time zone, scalability and languages offered. "

"We look forward to welcoming Babel's highly talented employees to the fast growing Keywords group and to continuing to build upon its strong brand with Keywords' approach to focusing on the efficient delivery of high quality services to our clients."



Raman Roy, Chairman and CEO of Quatrro, commented:



"This divesture is a win-win for both companies. While it allows us to focus on our core business lines, it will also provide Babel Media with the right platform for the next phase of its growth. I would like to wish the Babel and Keywords Studios teams the very best for the future."

Keywords Studios: Numis ups target price to 180p retaining its buy recommendation

New Delivery Hub in South East Asia

RNS


RNS Number : 8033D

Keywords Studios PLC

02 April 2014






02 April 2014







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")



Keywords Studios establishes a Full Service Delivery Hub for South East Asia





Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announced the establishment of a new subsidiary company Keywords International Pte. Ltd ("KW Singapore"). This accelerates the Group's plans for a services fulfilment centre in Singapore as an operational hub for the growing games market in South East Asia.



As part of an existing master services agreement with EA Swiss Sàrl (EA), Keywords Singapore will now also provide a range of localisation, testing and audio services for South East Asian languages effective immediately. KW Singapore will support both the new business and existing work for South East Asian languages conducted elsewhere by Keywords.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"We are excited about establishing a new Keywords subsidiary in Singapore. It is an important strategic addition to our Asian operations, which include our successful Tokyo operations which we grew organically over 4 years and our Babel branded, New Delhi studio, acquired last month.

Keywords expects the new studio to be at the centre of the fulfilment of our existing Thai, Indonesian, Malay and simplified Chinese business. This, together with already targeted new business opportunities with existing clients, gives us confidence that the start up studio will be profitable in its first year of operation.

The subsidiary will be staffed through key staff hires and through intercompany transfers. This new studio, together with a high calibre team, positions Keywords solidly for further organic and acquisitive growth in the fast developing Asian markets."



Ends

Final Results

RNS


RNS Number : 2733E

Keywords Studios PLC

08 April 2014






April 8, 2014





Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")



Maiden final results for the year to December 31, 2013



Strong revenue growth and significant expansion both organically and by acquisition



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its audited full year results for the year to December 31, 2013 1.



Operational overview:

· Won Blizzard Entertainment, Disney, Kixeye, King, Pretty Simple Games, and Supercell as new clients and maintained excellent client retention, underpinning market share gains

· Invested in increased Localisation and Testing capacity in Dublin, Seattle, Montreal and Tokyo

· Created Managed Services operation for major client in Seattle



Financial overview:

· Group revenue increased by 14% to €16.4m (2012: €14.3m)

· Adjusted profit before tax2of €2.5m (2012: €2.9m)

· Statutory profit before tax of €1.2m (2012: €2.7m)

· Adjusted basic earnings per share3of 5.28c (2012: 7.30c); basic earnings per share of 2.14c

· Net cash of €15.3mincluding net IPO proceeds of €10.2m (2012: €3.9m)

· Operating cash flow up to €2.3m (2012: €1.9m)

· Maiden final dividend of 0.67p, giving a total dividend for the year of 1.00p per share



Post Period End

Acquired Liquid Violet and Babel Media in early 2014; integration and performance in line with expectations

· Established a new subsidiary in Singapore, from which Keywords is providing localisation, testing and audio services for South East Asian languages to Electronic Arts and other clients

· Made a solid start to the year, in line with management's expectations



1On July 8, 2013, prior to Keywords Studios plc's Admission to AIM on July 12, 2013, it acquired 100% of the Keywords group of companies, through a share for share exchange with the shareholders of Keywords International Limited. As a result, results for Keywords Studio plc would not provide a meaningful picture of the performance of the consolidated Group for the year to December 31, 2013. We have, therefore, prepared the consolidated results for the year to December 31, 2013, as if the Group had been in existence throughout the entire period, whilst the comparative results and balances comprise the consolidated results and balances of Keywords International Limited

2Profit before tax before IPO expenses, share option charges and foreign currency movements

3 Basic earnings per share before IPO expenses. Calculated using weighted average number of shares for the year of 35.8m shares



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:



"Despite the uncertainty in the industry as it transitions to the new generation of consoles, we delivered strong revenue growth and we have considerably strengthened our market position, geographical spread and service offering through a combination of market share gains, organic investment and recent acquisitions. This leaves us well placed to take advantage of industry growth and structural change, which we expect to lead to an increased use of outsourced services, in the current year.



"2014 is expected to be a year of healthy activity for the games industry as it supports the fast growing new generation hardware and the existing 250m installed console base, as well as the significant growth being seen in smartphone gaming.



"We, therefore, look forward to making good progress as we realise the benefits of increased scale, of improving utilisation across our business, of the acquisitions made following the year end and of our 2013 client wins."

Keywords Studios expects a year of “healthy activity” in the video games industry

By Jamie Ashcroft

April 08 2014, 9:03am
The Dublin-based company, which provides translation, localisation and testing services as part of the computer game development process
The Dublin-based company, which provides translation, localisation and testing services as part of the computer game development process


Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) is expecting 2014 to be a year of “healthy activity” in the video games industry, as it supports the fast growing market created by the new generation of games consoles.

The company said it has made a solid start to the current year and it is performing in line with management expectations.

Disruption coming from the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s Playstation 4 had, however, impacted negatively last year due to some projects being put on hold as game developers focussed on a handful of launch titles.

Nevertheless, the Dublin-based company, which provides translation, localisation and testing services as part of the computer game development process, worked on over half of all the titles launched for the new consoles.

In this morning’s results, for 2013, the company reported group revenue growth of 14% to €16.4mln and operating cash flow increased to €2.3mln, from €1.9m in the year before. Adjusted pre-tax profit was down to €2.5mln, from €2.9mln.

It ended the year with €15.3mln of cash, including €10.2mln proceeds from July’s AIM market float. And it announced a maiden final dividend of 0.67p per share, giving a total dividend of 1p for the entire year.

Andrew Day, chief executive, said: "Despite the uncertainty in the industry as it transitions to the new generation of consoles, we delivered strong revenue growth and we have considerably strengthened our market position, geographical spread and service offering through a combination of market share gains, organic investment and recent acquisitions.

“This leaves us well placed to take advantage of industry growth and structural change, which we expect to lead to an increased use of outsourced services, in the current year.”

The acquisitive service provider joined the AIM market as part of a strategy to consolidate what it sees as a fractured industry sub-sector.

Since joining AIM it has already made two acquisitions Liquid Violet and Babel Media, both in early 2014, and earlier this month it said it was opening a new operation in Singapore.

"We, therefore, look forward to making good progress as we realise the benefits of increased scale, of improving utilisation across our business, of the acquisitions made following the year end and of our 2013 client wins," Day adds.

Acquisition & Placing

a href="http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4807424">http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4807424

Keywords Studios: Numis raises target price from 180p to 205p and reiterates a buy recommendation

Director/PDMR Shareholding

RNS


RNS Number : 5962H

Keywords Studios PLC

20 May 2014

Keywords Studios plc

("the Company"

Director Shareholding

Keywords Studios plc, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, hereby notifies the market that, on 19 May 2014, Ross Graham, an independent non-executive director and chairman of the Company, purchased 30,490 shares in the Company on the London Stock Exchange at a price of 164 pence per share. This purchase results in Ross Graham being interested in a total of 30,490 ordinary shares in the Company, representing 0.065% of the 47,105,007 ordinary shares in the Company currently in issue.

AGM Statement and Director Appointment

RNS


RNS Number : 3240K

Keywords Studios PLC

24 June 2014






24 June 2014







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")



AGM Statement & Board Change



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, is today holding its inaugural AGM at which, Ross Graham, Chairman, will make the following remarks:



The Group continues to make good progress in line with its stated strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration and service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to become the leader in providing outsourced services to the video games industry.



Since the Group's admission to AIM in July 2013, we have acquired Liquid Violet, Babel Media and Binari Sonori; all of which have been positively received amongst the respective customers of Keywords and the acquired businesses. The integration of these acquisitions is proceeding well.



We have also been successful in line with our strategy of securing outsourcing arrangements with major clients; in April 2014 we announced a Singapore based outsourcing arrangement with Electronic Arts thereby demonstrating the attraction, to large developers and publishers of video games, of a high quality independent global provider of technical services.



The Group continues to review a healthy pipeline of acquisition opportunities with a view to selectively acquiring attractive opportunities to extend its range of services, in line with the stated strategy.



Change of Group Finance Director



After two years with the Group, which included the Group's successful flotation on AIM and the Group's first acquisitions, David O'Connor is leaving to pursue other opportunities. David will continue with the Group until 31 July, to ensure a smooth handover of roles. We would like to thank him for his contribution over this very exciting period in our development. Andrew Lawton (ACA, BEng, aged 51), who has already spent some time in the Group as a consultant will be appointed to the role of Group Finance Director, on 1 July 2014. Andrew was previously CFO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe where he joined at the start of the PlayStation business in 1994 and supported its growth to over €3bn and 1000 employees. We extend a warm welcome to Andrew as we continue to develop the Keywords Group through organic and acquisition led growth.



In relation to Andrew Lawton's appointment to the board, there is no further information required to be disclosed pursuant to paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies.



Summary and Outlook



Revenue for the first five months of the year increased to €10.1m (2013: €5.3m), including the revenues from the acquisitions since their incorporation into the Group. As previously stated, these acquisitions have historically achieved lower margins than Keywords, partly due to a different mix of services but also due to the more rigorous focus Keywords places on lean and agile operations. We anticipate that the benefits of the roll out of Keywords' approach to operational efficiency will be realised incrementally over the course of the respective earn-out periods.



The Group continues to grow market share and win new clients. We typically experience lower levels of activity in the first half of the year compared to the second half, but the seasonal ramp up has begun with encouraging signs of activity from our key clients.



The board anticipates a strong trading performance for the year ending December 2014 albeit there will likely be a €300,000 impact from the reductions to Multi Media Tax Credit in Montreal announced on June 4th by the newly elected government of Quebec Province.



Overall, we look forward to enhancing the returns from our recent acquisitions, and continuing to grow our client base and range of titles, whilst selectively acquiring businesses that will extend our service offering to our global client base.

Keyword Studios - Andrew Day, CEO, discusses the H1 2014 highlights

Click here

Acquisition

RNS


RNS Number : 9379T

Keywords Studios PLC

10 October 2014






10 October 2014







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")



Acquisition of Lakshya Digital Pvt. Ltd

Services extension into outsourced art asset creation and operational synergies



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of Lakshya Digital Pvt. Ltd ("Lakshya"), a leading provider of outsourced art services for the video games industry internationally with centres of operation in New Delhi and Pune, India, for a total consideration of $4.0m.



The acquisition is in line with Keywords Studios' strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration or service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to generate synergies.



Founded in 2004 and employing 270 people, most of whom are highly trained artists, Lakshya is one of the most recognised brands in the large and highly fragmented market for the provision of outsourced art services to the video games industry. It provides Keywords Studios an entry point into this fast growing market, where the demand for art assets (such as characters, vehicles, landscapes, cityscapes, space ships and weapons) is growing in line with the increase in game content as games on consoles, social media, PCs, tablets and smart phones become more complex and richer in their definition.



Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership, Keywords Studios has agreed to pay the sellers of Lakshya a total of $4.0m for 100% of Lakshya, being satisfied in two tranches. 91% of the shares of Lakshya have been acquired for $3.0m in cash. The remaining 9% will be acquired for a total of $1.0m in October 2015, of which up to $400,000 at sole discretion of Keywords will be used to subscribe for shares in Keywords Studios at a price determined by the volume weighted average price per share in the 5 days prior to completion of this second stage. Two of the sellers will each be granted options over 450,000 shares of Keywords at the prevailing market price.



Lakshya's audited accounts for the year to 31 March 2014 show it achieved revenues of INR 249m ($4.05m); it had net assets of INR 78m ($1.3m) including net debt of INR 9.1m ($0.15m). Underlying PBT after adjusting for a non-continuing activity amounted to INR 23m ($0.37m).



Lakshya's well-established position with game development studios, particularly in the US and Japan, will open up new sales channels for the Keywords group where the focus is primarily on video game publishers. The business development team of Lakshya will be integrated into the Keywords sales force to further facilitate cross selling between the Group's extended range of services.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"By providing us with an entry point into the large, growing yet fragmented art outsourcing market, the acquisition of Lakshya provides Keywords with additional growth opportunities as well as cost and revenue synergies. It will enable the Group to have earlier involvement in the development cycle of video games titles, it will enable us to share one facility at Gurgaon (New Delhi) where both Lakshya and Babel Media are located and it will provide us with a base from which to expand further in the art outsourcing market."

"We look forward to welcoming Lakshya's highly talented employees to the fast growing Keywords group and to continuing to build upon its strong brand, leveraging Keywords' unparalleled geographic footprint, client relationships and financial strength. Amalgamating Keywords and Lakshya business development resources will further strengthen the breadth of our offering, while ensuring that we take full advantage of opportunities to introduce all clients to the full range of services available from Keywords studios around the world."

10 Oct Numis 200.00 Buy

SMALL CAP IDEAS: Providing services for video games such as Assassin's Creed proves lucrative for Keyword Studios

By Ian Lyall, Proactive Investors

Published: 14:17, 1 December 2014 | Updated: 15:14, 1 December 2014


Here’s a little nugget of information film buffs already probably know - the most expensive big screen epic of all time, weighing in at $300million, is the third in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

You’d have to sell a lot of seats and popcorn to cover those costs.

But mind boggling as that figure is, it still falls $200million short of covering the development and marketing budget for Destiny, the latest blockbuster video game from Activsion.

Here’s the thing - and for all the oldies out there this will come as a huge shock: the games industry, worth a staggering $65billion, is now bigger than Hollywood.



Gae play: Keywords offers a range of ‘creative translation services’ such as local language text and audio for games such as Assassin's Creed (pictured) as well as providing functional testing of the latest release







+1
Gae play: Keywords offers a range of ‘creative translation services’ such as local language text and audio for games such as Assassin's Creed (pictured) as well as providing functional testing of the latest release

So, hitching your trailer to this juggernaut represents a great business model, particularly if you can withstand its periodic troughs.

Keywords Studios, which listed on AIM last July, has done just that. But rather than developing the latest best seller, it provides services that are integral to making hits such as the likes of Assassin’s Creed, Forza, Farmville and Candy Crush international best sellers.

Keywords offers a range of ‘creative translation services’ such as local language text and audio for games as well as providing functional testing of the latest release.

The acquisition of Lakshya Digital recently took Keywords into the business of art creation too. And that’s the model - widening the offering while cementing its position in the markets where it already thrives.



The group works with 18 of the top 25 names in the game business, including Microsoft, Sony and NAMCO Bandai.

It’s an industry that’s growing 8-9 per cent annually, while the proliferation of games via smartphones hits Keywords’ sweet spot.

'Video games used to be defined as things that went out on a console, or PC. The language set was fairly limited, perhaps four or eight languages,' chief executive Andrew Day told Proactive Investors.

'But with smartphones, the language mix is 28 regularly and 40 plus sometimes. The other driver is games as a service rather than a retail product. So, they now exist in live mode, so you have packs and expansions.

'There is always some more content to buy, and we are all about content.'

The company, founded in 1998, now has 11 offices in nine countries employing 600 staff. The workforce rises to 1,500 when demand is higher and that doesn’t count freelancers.


KEYWORD IN NUMBERS


Value: £67mln

Current price: 140p

Year-high: 167p

Low: 98p

AIM ticker: KWS
.
This year Keywords’ revenues are predicted to be around €35million, while analysts expect pre-tax profits of €5million. Those profits will rise to €6.7million by the end of 2015 and then to €7.6million 12 months later, according to City broker Numis.

The group is a rarity on AIM for being a dividend payer, while net cash of around €9.6million means that combined with stock and borrowing it could afford to spend €20million on acquisitions.

Close inspection of Keyword's profit and loss account reveals gross margins are in the order of 33-35 per cent, giving a net margin of up to 15 per cent.

The customers, meanwhile, are fairly sticky. 'Most of our revenues are recurring if not always contracted,' said Day.

'So, they come from major clients that partner with us to give us 60-80 per cent of their requirements year on year.

'So, we are not hunting for individual orders. We are there with master agreements in place.'

Listed at 123p, Keyword shares hit 167p in June, but have since drifted down and are now changing hands for 140p each.

At that price the stock is trading on 20 times current-year earnings, falling to a more reasonable 16 times 2015 EPS.

'We think this remains attractive for a business with robust underlying growth and profitability,' the company’s broker Numis said recently. It thinks the stock is worth 200p, representing a 43 per cent gain if it hits this target.

Day said: 'The new consoles are now going to more territories than the previously. The target audience has changed. It used to be predominantly males [playing video games]; but that isn’t the case now. Over 50 per cent of gamers are women.

'Smartphones, meanwhile, are a very explosive multiplier for where games go to. So, the fundamentals of the industry are good

Acquisition and Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 4761B
Keywords Studios PLC
07 January 2015

7 January 2015







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")



Acquisition of Alchemic Dream Inc

Services extension into Customer Support for video games

and

Acquisition of Reverb Localização - Preparação de Documentos Ltda.

Geographic Expansion in South America

and

Trading Update



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of Alchemic Dream Inc. ("Alchemic Dream"), a well-established provider of multi-lingual customer support services for the video games industry internationally for a total consideration of up to CAD$1.25m



In addition, Keywords has completed the acquisition of Reverb Localização - Preparação de Documentos Ltda. ("Reverb") for a total cash consideration of up to €300k.



The acquisitions are in line with Keywords Studios' strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration or service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to generate synergies.



Founded in 2001, Alchemic Dream is a well-known brand in the video games industry for cost effective and flexible customer care services. Based in Shawinigan near Montreal, Canada where it employs 38 people, it also works with remote collaborators in 36 countries. The acquisition provides Keywords Studios with an entry point into the fast growing market for community management services, either within the game, in the game forums or within the wider social media channels. The demand for live operations support services designed to ensure players continue to engage with the game for longer is expanding due to the transition from games as a packaged product, sold through traditional retail stores, to games as a service for mobile, online, or console games.



Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first year of ownership, Keywords Studios has agreed to pay the sellers of Alchemic Dream a maximum total consideration of CAD$1.25m for 100% of Alchemic Dream dependent on certain closing balance sheet related adjustments. The consideration is to be satisfied in cash.



Alchemic Dream's management accounts for the 10 months to 31 October 2014 show the business achieved revenues of CAD $4.33m and profits before tax of CAD $480k. The accounts for the year to 31 December 2013 show it achieved revenues of $3.7m, a loss before tax of $220k and it had net assets of $0.48m including net debt of $0.2m.



Alchemic Dream's know how and expertise in managing communities of gamers for leading online and mobile game operators across all forms of social media, within the games themselves and on the official game forums will be used as a platform from which to develop customer care services throughout the Group internationally.



Reverb was founded in 2012 and is based in Rio de Janeiro. Its small team of 5 employees and its freelance collaborators have established a solid reputation providing localisation and audio management services for Brazilian Portuguese for some leading games including World of Warcraft and Magic the Gathering. This will be Keywords' first office in South America where computer games are growing fast. The market in Latin America is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13% from $3bn in 2013 to $5.1bn in 20181.



Trading and Market Update



As anticipated, the second half of the Group's financial year has seen Keywords supporting many game titles where the anticipated release dates fall in the first three months of 2015. We have made good progress with the introduction of Keywords' operational efficiency to our recently acquired businesses and have seen strengthened demand for our higher margin services in the second half. As a result, we expect the outturn for the full year to be in line with expectations.



The games market as a whole continues to develop strongly with the rejuvenation of the console market as some developers refocus on the console game sector and Microsoft and Sony actively solicit independent games developers to develop titles for their new consoles. In particular, we welcome the launch during September of the Xbox One by Microsoft into 28 territories which were omitted from the initial launch in November 2013 and the opening of the Chinese market to the sale of video game consoles for the first time; this will help to drive a proliferation of content and territories and will serve us well as developers seek to maximise revenues by localising games to increase their target audiences.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"The acquisition of Alchemic Dream provides us with an important point of entry into the increasingly important market of customer care services for the video games industry. Our ability to offer a full range of gamer support services by leveraging our highly committed pool of 1,500 game specialists spread across 12 locations and 3 continents will be a huge asset. The systems, knowledge and experience of Alchemic Dream will allow us to greatly accelerate our otherwise organic growth in this arena.

"Adding customer care and community management to our offering allows us to provide services to our clients through all stages of the video game life cycle from conception through to live operations. With changing monetisation models which rely on keeping players engaged in the game for as long as possible high quality customer care has become an essential part of the game experience. Dealing in a professional manner and in the language of video games with varied issues such as helping players to reach the next level, intervening in cases of online bullying, understanding and resolving in-game bugs, representing the game operator on social media platforms is a service which protects the clients' brands and adds value through increased consumer spend.

"We are also pleased to be announcing our first investment in the fast developing game economy in Brazil. Brazilian Portuguese has risen to take its place in our top 5 languages alongside the more established languages of French, Spanish, German and Italian. The acquisition of Reverb provides us with a small but high quality foothold in this important growth market and we expect to be able grow our revenues and improve our margins for this language as a result.

"We warmly welcome our new colleagues at Alchemic Dream and Reverb to the fast growing Keywords group and look forward to working with both businesses to integrate them fully into the Group to strengthen and broaden the services we can offer to our clients globally."

Ends

Final Results
RNS
RNS Number : 0861K
Keywords Studios PLC
14 April 2015



14 April 2015







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")



Full year results for the year to 31 December 2014



Transformational growth



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its full year results for the year to 31 December 2014.



Financial highlights:



A strong financial performance driven by organic and acquisitive growth



· Group revenue increased by 130% to €37.3m (2013: €16.2m)

· Adjusted profit before tax* increased by 104% to €5.1m (2013: €2.5m)

· Adjusted basic earnings per share* up by 48% to 8.54c (2013: 5.76c)

· Net cash of €11.0m (2013: €15.3m), after €8.9m net cash consideration for acquisitions, €3.0m repayment in Babel Media borrowings upon acquisition, €1.5m costs of acquisitions and integration expenses, and €7.3m (net of expenses) raised in a Placing

· 10% increase in total dividend to 1.10p per share (2013: 1.00p)



*before acquisition and integration expenses of €1.5m (2013: nil), IPO expenses of nil (2013: €1.12m), share option charges of €0.2m (2013: €0.1m), amortisation of intangibles of €0.5m (2013: nil) and foreign currency gains of €0.5m (2013: losses of €0.1m).



Operational overview:



The only international provider of the full range of outsourced services



· Strong organic growth; revenues up 23% excluding all acquisitions:

· Continued to gain market share adding clients like Ankama, Bioware, Carbine, Frontier Developments, Nexon and Tencent

· Invested in new Singapore operation to support Electronic Arts' move to outsourced services in South East Asia

· Significantly extended service capabilities and geographical reach through four acquisitions:

· Liquid Violet, acquired in January 2014, extended our audio services offering

· Babel Media, the only other full service provider in the industry, was acquired in February 2014, giving Keywords good exposure to Functional Testing and a presence in India

· Binari Sonori, acquired in May 2014, further strengthened our audio and localisation services, giving the Group a presence in Milan and Los Angeles

· Lakshya Digital, acquired in October 2014, provided an entry into art outsourcing and giving Keywords visibility further up the game development supply chain

· Delivered operational synergies in Montreal and in New Delhi through co-locating production facilities with those acquired








Post period end / current trading:



· Acquired Alchemic Dream and Reverb in January 2015, providing an entry into customer care services and a presence in Rio de Janeiro, respectively

· Opened an office in Barcelona in January 2015

· Trading in the first 3 months in line with our expectations



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:



"2014 was a significant year in the development of Keywords: in addition to delivering organic growth of over 20%, 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.



"Those acquisitions are integrating well and we feel confident that the synergies already experienced between the business units will continue to build through 2015 and beyond, as we continue to identify and convert cross selling opportunities and leverage the expanded pool of talent across the Group.



"The games market has gone through a transitional period over the past two years, but with the installed base for the new generation of consoles having reached what many believe to be the tipping point following the 2014 holiday season, 2015 is expected to be the first solid, post transition year in the console game sector and we are looking forward to a return to more normal trading patterns in this segment as a result. Moreover, our business in the high growth mobile games market segment is going from strength to strength having built up strong relationships with many publishers including Supercell, King, Electronic Arts, glu, Machine Zone, Zynga and Kabam all of whom are listed in the top 10 mobile games developers by Pocket Gamer.biz (March 2014)



"As a market leader with a strong financial position we are well placed to deliver on the potential for high margin growth we see in our growing markets, both traditional and emerging. We expect to benefit in 2015 from a more settled console games market, the full year effects of acquisitions made during 2014 and in early 2015 and continued growth both organically and through additional selective acquisitions particularly in newer services lines such as art outsourcing, as we further consolidate our market leadership. We, therefore, look forward with confidence to making further progress as we move through the current year and beyond."

Keywords Studios is mobilising

By John Harrington

April 14 2015, 2:58pm
With the increased popularity of smartphones over the last couple of years, especially in Asia, mobile gaming is really taking off



Computer gaming services provider Keywords Studios’ (LON:KWS) kept its focus on the core business last year, even as it integrated new acquisitions.

Organic growth of more than 20% was augmented by contributions from a clutch of acquired companies in 2014.

The top line grew by 130% to €37.3mln from €16.2mln in 2013, while adjusted profit before tax doubled to €5.1mln from €2.5mln.

Revenue was ahead of house broker Numis Securities’ estimate of €35.5mln, while profits were bang in line.

Speaking to Proactive Investors, chief executive Andrew Day said the underlying growth rate is higher still, as the results do not factor in a full-year’s contribution from recently acquired companies.

The group, which provides language, testing and localisation services to some of the game industry’s top developers, including Ubisoft, Zynga, Electronic Arts and Konami, has made “a good start to the current year,” Day told investors, and is well-placed to delivery on the potential for high margin growth that it sees in its expanding markets.

The company may be operating in a specialised niche, but the market it services is already bigger than the US film industry, and is growing at 8% per annum, while the content side – which is the part Keywords services – is growing even faster than that, Day observed. Numis suggested the group’s market is growing at 10% a year.

“We expect to benefit in 2015 from a more settled console games market, the full year effects of acquisitions made during 2014 and continued growth both organically and through additional selective acquisitions, as we further consolidate our market leadership,” Day said in the results statement.

The group is growing its share in the fast-expanding mobile and social media gaming space, and according to Day it counts seven of the top 10 mobile gaming companies on its customer list.

With the increased popularity of smartphones over the last couple of years, especially in Asia, mobile gaming is really taking off and the games are becoming more polished, which is increasing demand for Keywords’ services, Day asserted.

“Increasingly, we are becoming to the go-to company for this sort of work, as the development cycle quickens and higher resolution art gets incorporated into these sorts of games,” Day explained, adding that around 30% of the company’s business comes from the mobile and social media space.

The group ended the year with net cash of €11.0mln, down from €15.3mln at the end of 2014, after spending €8.9mln (net) on acquisitions and receiving €3.7mln (net) from a share placing.

"Those acquisitions are integrating well and we feel confident that the synergies already experienced between the business units will continue to build through 2015 and beyond, as we continue to identify and convert cross selling opportunities and leverage the expanded pool of talent across the group,” Day revealed.

Asked by Proactive Investors what the company looks for in its acquisition target, Day stressed the importance of cultural fit.

“We seek companies that look and behave like Keywords people. A solid economic performance is important, or maybe the opportunity to turn a business around.

“Mainly it is about extension, whether it be extending the skill base of the geographical presence.”

Day added that the artwork business is probably one of the most fragmented sectors in which the company operates, and it would probably look at making more acquisitions in this area.

Broker Cantor Fitzgerald called the update “confident full year results”.

“The games market has gone through a transitional period over the past two years, but with the installed base for the new generation of consoles having reached what many believe to be the tipping point following the 2014 holiday season, 2015 is expected to be the first solid, post transition year in the console game sector,” the broker said.

House broker made modest upgrades to its forecasts in the wake of the results, nudging up its current year earnings per share (EPS) forecast to 12.2 cents from 12 cents.

“We expect the group to continue to look for acquisitions, and to the extent that the group uses cash, these would be likely to be very EPS accretive,” Numis said.

The full-year dividend has been bumped up by 10% to 1.10p.

Shares were up 1.7% at 10p in late afternoon trading.

MIDAS-SHARE-TIPS-Translator-word-video-game-market-not-Keywords-Studios.

.

PDMR Holding
RNS
RNS Number : 8404M
Keywords Studios PLC
12 May 2015



12 May 2015



Keywords Studios plc

("the Company")



Director Shareholding

Keywords Studios plc, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, hereby notifies the market that, on 11 May 2015, Ross Graham, an independent non-executive director and chairman of the Company, purchased 27,950 shares in the Company on the London Stock Exchange at a price of 161.0 pence per share. This purchase results in Ross Graham being interested in a total of 58,440 ordinary shares in the Company, representing 0.1236% of the 47,263,257 ordinary shares in the Company currently in issue.

Acquisition and Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 2092T
Keywords Studios PLC
16 July 2015

16th July 2015







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")



Acquisition of Kite Team s.l.

Geographic Expansion in Central America

and

Trading Update



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of Kite Team s.l. together with its wholly owned subsidiary, Kite Team Mex S. de R.L. de C.V. ("Kite Team"). With audio recording and localisation studios in a modern facility in Madrid and with a new audio and localisation facility in Mexico City, Kite Team is rapidly becoming a leader in games localisation and audio recording for both Iberian and Latin American Spanish.



Keywords is acquiring 50% of Kite Team immediately with the remaining 50% to be acquired subject to certain conditions with effect from 31st December 2017.



The acquisition is in line with Keywords Studios' strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration or service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to generate synergies.



Kite Team has a blue chip client base of global video game publishers and developers and it has also established a relationship with Binari Sonori, part of the Keywords group. Keywords will now move its Spanish and Latin American audio recording to Kite Team from previous regional partners.



Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the next full financial year, Keywords will pay vendors initial consideration of €0.5m in cash, with deferred consideration of up to €1.8m to be satisfied by a mix of cash and Keywords shares.



Trading and Market Update



Trading for the first half of the year has been in line with management's expectations with the games market, particularly in the console games segment, returning to more normal trading patterns (as expected) following the refresh of the console hardware market led by the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2013. The seasonal ramp up in activity, particularly in audio and testing services, started in May and is well underway in all of the Group's facilities. Recent acquisitions are performing well and Lakshya, the art outsourcing business acquired in October 2014, is performing very strongly and meeting its demanding organic growth targets by expanding capacity in its New Delhi and Pune studios as well as opening a new studio in Seattle, Washington.



Content for video games continues to grow strongly with particularly buoyant activity in the mobile and console sectors. Smartphone gaming is breaking down barriers between markets in China, Japan and Korea which have traditionally been distinct markets with little crossover while emerging markets in South East Asia, Latin America and Arabic speaking territories are growing fast. All of Keywords' services benefit from the proliferation of game content.



Keywords will provide a further update on trading when it announces its half year results for the six months ended 30 June 2015 on 22 September 2015.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"Following on from our investment in Brazil with the acquisition of Reverb in January this year, the acquisition of Kite Team provides us with an important base from which to service the localisation and audio requirements for the growing market for Latin American Spanish video games in both North and South America. The Latin American market for digital games is forecast to grow from $1.1 billion in 2013 to $2.5 billion by 2018, representing a 17% 5-year CAGR1.

"In addition, as a single language provider with market leading talent, the Madrid operation will allow the Group to offer this important language to those clients that prefer to source languages separately rather than adopting a multi lingual approach. As a supplier of Spanish audio recording to Binari Sonori, the investment in Kite Team will also enable us to capture the margin on revenues we were previously outsourcing.

"We warmly welcome our new colleagues at Kite Team to the fast growing Keywords group and look forward to working alongside them to further extend the range of services and choice of production approach we are able to offer our clients globally."

Ends

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 5635W
Keywords Studios PLC
20 August 2015



20th August 2015







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")



Acquisition of Liquid Development LLC

-Increases scale of services to the buoyant Art creation market



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of Liquid Development LLC ("Liquid"), a leading provider of outsourced art services for the video games industry internationally based in Portland, Oregon.



The acquisition is in line with Keywords' strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition. Art outsourcing is a key area for expansion given the buoyant market for the creation of art assets (items seen in the games such as characters, vehicles, landscapes, cityscapes, etc.). Game development services like art creation provide an early entry point to the video games lifecycle for Keywords. The skillset, reputation and culture of Liquid, allied with Keywords' Lakshya operation acquired in October 2014 should enable the Group to accelerate its expansion plans in this important field.



Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership, Keywords is paying the three owners of Liquid, Darren Bartlett, Stefan Henry-Biskup and Fred Stockton (the "Sellers"), all of whom will remain with the company after the acquisition, a total of $9.0m for 100% of Liquid. This is being satisfied by $6.3m in cash (funded from the Group's existing resources) and the issue of 1,074,440 new ordinary shares in Keywords at a price of 160.32 pence (based on the volume weighted average share price for the 5 days immediately prior to the acquisition). The shares in Keywords issued to the Sellers will be credited as fully paid and rank pari passu with the existing ordinary shares of Keywords when issued. The Sellers will be subject to a lock-in period of 12 months with respect to the shares in Keywords, subject to certain exceptions, followed by an orderly market restriction for a further 12 month period.



Founded in 2000, Liquid's base on the West Coast of the US gives ready access to many of the world's leading game development studios and its clients include 343 Industries (makers of the Halo games franchise), Warner Bros, EA, Microsoft Game Studios, Zynga, Disney Imagineering and DeNA. With 50 people in its Portland studio, the wider Liquid team includes over 200 individuals that have a broad spectrum of art, animation and effects creation skills.



Growing strongly, Liquid is on track to post annual revenues of $7.5m and PBT of $1.5m for the year to 31 December 2015. In 2014, the company recorded revenues of $5.7m and PBT of $0.8m after adjusting for certain, non-recurring costs.



Liquid shares Keywords' lean and flexible production model, which enables it to scale (up and down) rapidly, thereby maintaining high levels of utilization of its staff. Its US location, excellent reputation for quality and reliability of delivery particularly with North American clients, and its strong project management of remote teams will fit well with Keywords' existing art services business, Lakshya, which is based in India. In addition to integrating Keywords' recently opened art studio in Seattle with the Liquid operations in Portland, the intention is to extend Liquid's operations to better leverage the lower cost base of the Lakshya business in India, with Liquid providing client facing account management and project management services and supervising work undertaken in India.



Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 1,074,440 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 25 August 2015.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:

"The acquisition of Liquid Development significantly increases the scale of our art services business line, giving us greater penetration of this large and strongly growing market as well as increased access to this early entry point in the video games development cycle. We have already seen how our newly opened art studio in Seattle is able to act as a "front end" for art production in our Indian studios and we look forward to accelerating this model with Liquid Development.

"We warmly welcome Liquid's highly talented team and collaborators to the fast growing Keywords group and we look forward to continuing to build upon the excellent reputation and client base enjoyed by the Liquid Development brand. Bringing the two businesses together provides the group with the much needed art capacity and talent to help meet existing strong client demand and enables us to offer more services to more potential and existing clients."

"We are looking forward to taking advantage of the strong opportunities presented by the increased demand for art asset creation services due to the recent step change in art definition brought about by the increased processing power and storage capacity of the new generation of games consoles and smart phones."

Fred Stockton, Chief Executive of Liquid Development, LLC commented:

"Our team is very pleased to be joining Keywords' group of companies that provide the broadest range of services to the video game industry. Liquid's founder, Darren Bartlett and our creative director Stefan Henry-Biskup will join me in continuing leadership roles at Keywords. The ability to expand the scope of Liquid's art services, through combining efforts with the well-funded and geographically diverse existing Keywords' art business will allow the Liquid team to offer our existing clients and new clients a great breadth of service. This is an important step in our company's continued growth and success."

keywords-studios-significantly-expanded-by-art-acquisitions-numis-says

Half Yearly Report
RNS
RNS Number : 7362Z
Keywords Studios PLC
22 September 2015



22 September 2015







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")



Half year results for the six months to 30 June 2015



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its half year results for the six months to 30 June 2015.



Financial overview:

· Group revenue, including contribution from acquisitions, increased by 74% to €23.9m (H1 2014: €13.7m)

· Strong revenue growth of 23% on a pro forma basis*

· Adjusted profit before tax** up 65% to €2.2m (H1 2014: €1.3m)

o Statutory profit before tax of €1.6m (H1 2014: €0.04m)

· Adjusted earnings per share** up 63% to 4.29c (H1 2014: 2.63c)

o Earnings per share of 3.02c (H1 2014: (0.34c))

· Net cash of €6.1m (H1 2014: €9.6m) after €1.7m of acquisition consideration and costs

· 11% increase in interim dividend to 0.40p per share (2013: 0.36p)



* Pro forma revenues calculated as if all acquisitions made prior to 30 June 2015 had been part of the Group during the whole of the six months ended 30 June 2015 and 30 June 2014

** before acquisition and integration expenses of £0.7m (H1 2014: £1.2m), share option charges of £0.1m (H1 2014: £0.05m), amortisation of intangibles of £0.4m (H1 2014: £0.2m) and foreign currency gains of £0.6m (H1 2014: £0.1m)





Operational overview:

· Strong first half performance from both acquisitions and the existing business, in line with management expectations for the full year

· Significant further investment in the development of the business:

o Acquisitions of Alchemic Dream (Shawinigan, near Montreal) and Reverb (Rio de Janeiro) in January 2015.

o €0.3m invested in new studios in Barcelona and Seattle

o Increased staff levels in most locations in line with increased demand for our services

· Continued gains in market share

o Recent titles worked on include: Skylanders Supercharger, Batman: Arkham Knight, Mortal Combat X, Project CARS and Mad Max

o New clients include: Oculus VR, Amazon, Gearbox, Fincon and NetMarble



Outlook:

· Outturn for the full year anticipated to be in line with expectations, reflecting:

o A return to the summer months being the peak period for the industry after two years of distortion due to the new console launch cycle

o The acquisition of Kite Team (Madrid and Mexico City) and Liquid Development (Portland, Oregon) in July and August 2015

o Particularly buoyant demand for Art services, where we are already working at capacity despite adding an additional 100 artists to our staff

o The benefit of continued new business wins and increased market share

· Selectively reviewing a strong acquisition pipeline





Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:



"We have delivered another strong performance for the first six months of the year and are looking forward with confidence to continuing to build our global games services business through both acquisition and organic growth.



"Our Art creation business in particular has benefitted from very strong demand in that market. The acquisition of Liquid Development in August this year has both provided additional in-house capacity and has also brought much greater flexibility in resourcing which will allow us to flex up and down with the demands of individual projects in much the same way that we do in our other service lines.



"The rhythm of game production and release schedules has returned to a more normal pattern following the disruption caused by the release of new games consoles in November 2013. As such, we are seeing a return to more traditional trading patterns in our audio, testing and localisation businesses. This, combined with the benefits of our recent acquisitions, organic investment and client wins leaves us well placed for the second half, with the outturn for the full year anticipated to be in-line with the Board's expectations."

Keywords Studios PLC (KWS:LSE) set a new 52-week high during Thursday's trading session when it reached 210.00. Over this period, the share price is up 53.33%.

Half Yearly Report
RNS
RNS Number : 7362Z
Keywords Studios PLC
22 September 2015



22 September 2015







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")



Half year results for the six months to 30 June 2015



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its half year results for the six months to 30 June 2015.



Financial overview:

· Group revenue, including contribution from acquisitions, increased by 74% to €23.9m (H1 2014: €13.7m)

· Strong revenue growth of 23% on a pro forma basis*

· Adjusted profit before tax** up 65% to €2.2m (H1 2014: €1.3m)

o Statutory profit before tax of €1.6m (H1 2014: €0.04m)

· Adjusted earnings per share** up 63% to 4.29c (H1 2014: 2.63c)

o Earnings per share of 3.02c (H1 2014: (0.34c))

· Net cash of €6.1m (H1 2014: €9.6m) after €1.7m of acquisition consideration and costs

· 11% increase in interim dividend to 0.40p per share (2013: 0.36p)



* Pro forma revenues calculated as if all acquisitions made prior to 30 June 2015 had been part of the Group during the whole of the six months ended 30 June 2015 and 30 June 2014

** before acquisition and integration expenses of £0.7m (H1 2014: £1.2m), share option charges of £0.1m (H1 2014: £0.05m), amortisation of intangibles of £0.4m (H1 2014: £0.2m) and foreign currency gains of £0.6m (H1 2014: £0.1m)





Operational overview:

· Strong first half performance from both acquisitions and the existing business, in line with management expectations for the full year

· Significant further investment in the development of the business:

o Acquisitions of Alchemic Dream (Shawinigan, near Montreal) and Reverb (Rio de Janeiro) in January 2015.

o €0.3m invested in new studios in Barcelona and Seattle

o Increased staff levels in most locations in line with increased demand for our services

· Continued gains in market share

o Recent titles worked on include: Skylanders Supercharger, Batman: Arkham Knight, Mortal Combat X, Project CARS and Mad Max

o New clients include: Oculus VR, Amazon, Gearbox, Fincon and NetMarble



Outlook:

· Outturn for the full year anticipated to be in line with expectations, reflecting:

o A return to the summer months being the peak period for the industry after two years of distortion due to the new console launch cycle

o The acquisition of Kite Team (Madrid and Mexico City) and Liquid Development (Portland, Oregon) in July and August 2015

o Particularly buoyant demand for Art services, where we are already working at capacity despite adding an additional 100 artists to our staff

o The benefit of continued new business wins and increased market share

· Selectively reviewing a strong acquisition pipeline





Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:



"We have delivered another strong performance for the first six months of the year and are looking forward with confidence to continuing to build our global games services business through both acquisition and organic growth.



"Our Art creation business in particular has benefitted from very strong demand in that market. The acquisition of Liquid Development in August this year has both provided additional in-house capacity and has also brought much greater flexibility in resourcing which will allow us to flex up and down with the demands of individual projects in much the same way that we do in our other service lines.



"The rhythm of game production and release schedules has returned to a more normal pattern following the disruption caused by the release of new games consoles in November 2013. As such, we are seeing a return to more traditional trading patterns in our audio, testing and localisation businesses. This, combined with the benefits of our recent acquisitions, organic investment and client wins leaves us well placed for the second half, with the outturn for the full year anticipated to be in-line with the Board's expectations."

keywords-to-take-advantage-of-surging-video-game-market

22 Oct finnCap 245.00 Buy

Placing of 5.5 million New Ordinary Shares
RNS
RNS Number : 9933G
Keywords Studios PLC
26 November 2015

Keywords Studios plc

26 November 2015



THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, INCLUDING THE APPENDIX AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN IT, IS RESTRICTED AND IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN, SOUTH AFRICA OR ANY OTHER STATE OR JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. PLEASE SEE THE IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE END OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.



Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords" or the "Company")

PLACING OF 5.5 MILLION NEW ORDINARY SHARES



Keywords, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, is pleased to announce a placing of 5,500,000 new ordinary shares (the "Placing Shares") at 190 pence per Placing Share (the "Placing Price") to raise approximately £10.45m before expenses ("the Placing").



The Placing Shares have been placed with new and existing investors and represent approximately 11.4 per cent of the issued share capital of the Company prior to the Placing. The Placing Price represents a 6.4 per cent discount to the closing middle market price of 203 pence on 25 November 2015, being the last trading day immediately preceding the date of this Announcement.



Background to and reasons for the Placing

Since coming to market in July 2013, Keywords' strategy has been to grow both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration and service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to generate synergies in the highly fragmented games services industry.



Since IPO, the Group has made considerable progress in executing its growth strategy by extending its range of services and adding new geographies both organically and through selective acquisitions. These include the acquisitions of Liquid Violet in January 2014, Babel Media in February 2014, Binari Sonori in May 2014, Lakshya Digital in October 2014, Reverb in January 2015, Alchemic Dream in January 2015, Kite Team in July 2015 and Liquid Development in August 2015. In particular the acquisitions have extended Keywords' offering into Art Creation and Customer Support, as well as enhancing capabilities in existing service lines. Today, Keywords' network of studios is present in 11 countries (compared to five at the time of IPO), and in the 6 months to 30 June 2015 revenue grew by 74% versus the same period in the prior year, or 23% revenue growth on a 'pro forma' basis (i.e. excluding the impact of acquisitions).



The Placing proceeds will be used by the Company to continue this strategy and make further selective, value-enhancing acquisitions. Management are engaged in active discussions with a number of target companies which would, if acquired, extend Keywords' service and / or geographic offering. The Placing proceeds will allow Keywords to continue to be viewed as an attractive acquirer to vendors and management teams of target companies with the ability to take advantage of opportunities with speed and certainty.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords, commented:

"We are delighted to have received strong support from both new and existing institutional investors for this Placing. The funds raised will allow us to continue to execute our strategy of making value-enhancing selective acquisitions in complementary service lines and geographies, and allow Keywords to continue to be a major acquirer in our industry. The business continues to perform well and the Board anticipates that performance for the remainder of the current financial year will be in line with expectations."



Details of the Placing

Numis is acting as bookrunner in connection with the Placing, subject to the conditions and termination rights set out in the placing agreement entered into between the Company and Numis (the "Placing Agreement"). The Placing is not being underwritten by Numis. Further details of the Placing Agreement and the terms and conditions of the Placing are set out in the Appendix to this Announcement.



The Placing Shares, when issued, will be credited as fully paid and will rank pari passu in all respects with the existing ordinary shares of one pence each in the capital of the Company, including the right to receive all dividends and other distribution declared, made or paid on or in respect of such ordinary shares after the date of issue. The Company's total issued share capital following completion of the Placing will consist of 53,837,697 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 53,837,697 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company following Admission.



Application has been made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective at 8.00 a.m. on 30 November 2015 and that dealings in the Placing Shares will commence at that time. The Placing is conditional upon, amongst other things, Admission becoming effective and upon the Placing Agreement not being terminated in accordance with its terms.



The issue of the Placing Shares is to be effected by way of a cashbox placing. The Company will allot and issue the Placing Shares on a non-pre-emptive basis to the Placees in consideration for Numis transferring its holdings of ordinary shares and redeemable preference shares in Project Midas Funding Limited to the Company. Accordingly, instead of receiving cash as consideration for the issue of Placing Shares, at the conclusion of the Placing, the Company will own the entire issued share capital of Project Midas Funding Limited, whose only asset will be its cash reserves representing an amount approximately equal to the net proceeds of the Placing.



This Announcement should be read in its entirety. In particular, your attention is drawn to the "Important Notice" section of this Announcement and to the detailed terms and conditions of the Placing set out in the Appendix. By choosing to participate in the Placing and by making an oral and legally binding offer to acquire Placing Shares, investors will be deemed to have read and understood this Announcement in its entirety and to be making such offer on the terms and subject to the conditions in it, and to be providing the representations, warranties and acknowledgements contained in the Appendix.

Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 5506N
Keywords Studios PLC
01 February 2016

1 February 2016







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios" or "the Group")



Full year trading Update



Strong organic growth complemented by successful acquisitions



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry today provides an update on trading after another year of strong organic growth complemented by a number of successful acquisitions.



The Group is pleased to announce that it expects to report revenues and adjusted PBT* comfortably ahead of consensus market expectations, when it announces its final results for the year ended 31 December 2015 on 5 April 2016. This performance has been driven by ongoing strong pro forma organic growth, with the continued robust performances from our existing service lines complemented by positive contributions from our newer service lines, customer support and art creation.



The Group has made good progress in line with its stated strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration and service lines, where the Group can use its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to consolidate its position as the market leader in providing outsourced services to the video games industry. During the year, organic growth has been complemented by the acquisitions of Reverb and Kite Team, which have given Keywords a presence in South America, Alchemic Dream which has provided an entry into customer support services and Liquid Development which increased the scale of the Group's operations in the buoyant art creation market.



The Group continues to review a healthy pipeline of acquisition opportunities with a view to selectively acquiring attractive businesses to strengthen its range of services and extend its global reach. The successful equity placing to raise £10m, which was announced on 26 November 2015, has put the Group in a great position to complete some of the more advanced acquisitions in this pipeline, and has further enhanced its shareholder base through the addition of a number of blue chip institutional investors from the UK as well as from the US, Germany and France.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:



"The Group continues to deliver a strong performance as it grows market share and wins new clients. 2015 was a year in which the console game production and publishing cycle flourished and, whilst it remains early in the year, 2016 is showing signs of being another good year for the Group, with some early business wins and increasing levels of cross selling emerging from our global sales force.



"Overall, we look forward to continuing our investments in our newly acquired entities as well as undertaking further complementary acquisitions and, in doing so, expanding our market by offering increased choice of services and geographic delivery centres to our video game development and publisher clients."



*The Group reports adjusted PBT before acquisition and integration expenses, share option charges, amortisation of intangibles and foreign currency gains

1 Feb Numis 275.00 Buy
1 Feb finnCap 245.00 Buy

18 Mar finnCap 245.00 Buy

Acquisition

RNS


RNS Number : 8054S

Keywords Studios PLC

22 March 2016




22nd March 2016







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")



Outsourcing agreement and acquisition of Ankama Asia Pte Ltd

- Expansion into the Philippines, adding new Live Operations services



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of Ankama Asia Pte Ltd whose sole asset is a business in Manila ("the Manila studio") which currently provides services to support the operations of the games of Ankama SAS ("Ankama"), including titles such as Dofus, Wakfu and Tactile Wars.



The acquisition is an outsourcing arrangement with Ankama whereby the Live Operations team in the Philippines is transferred to Keywords. Along with the benefit of a four year agreement for the continued provision of those services to Ankama, Keywords plans to significantly increase the scale of the Manila Studio to service new and existing clients of Keywords. With a current workforce of 23 people, the Manila Studio strengthens Keywords Customer Support operations and extends the range of services on offer to our clients to support their online and mobile games after launch. In addition, the studio can provide services for Promotions Management, Fraud Management, Customer Support, Quality Assurance and Bot Hunting (in which automated programs that have been introduced into the game against the rules are sought out and neutralised).



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:

"This mutually beneficial outsourcing arrangement with one of our established clients enables Ankama to benefit from the support of a trusted and efficient partner, while it gives Keywords a platform from which it can grow its presence in Asia with the benefit of the certainty of a four year contract.

"The Philippines is a well established territory for the provision of competitively priced support services, and the strong standard of English and high calibre service culture makes Manila an attractive location from which to continue to grow our English language customer and live operations support services offering."

Benoît Coupez, Head of Videogames at Ankama, commented:

"This arrangement is part of our overall strategy to refocus on our core activities. Delivering high quality games that balance originality, creativity and technology while always keeping our players' experience in mind. This outsourcing arrangement with Keywords will help us increase the quality of our user experience, both in-game and in terms of support."

24 Mar finnCap 245.00 Buy

week-ahead-keywords-studios-plc-going-for-new-high-score-

Acquisition

RNS


RNS Number : 2826U

Keywords Studios PLC

06 April 2016




6 April 2016









Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords" and, together with its subsidiaries, "the Group")



Acquisition of the remaining 50% of Kite Team S.L ("Kite Team")



Keywords, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has agreed with the selling shareholders of Kite Team ("Selling Shareholders") to acquire the 50% of Kite Team not already owned by Keywords 20 months sooner than originally provided for under the terms of the acquisition agreement (the "Agreement") in order to deliver the operational benefits of the full integration of Kite Team into Keywords earlier than planned. Under the terms of the Agreement, the consideration for the remaining 50% of Kite Team would have been no less than €0.8m and no more than €1.8m calculated by reference to the profit before interest and tax of Kite Team in the years to 31st December 2017.



The Agreement has now been revised such that Keywords will pay the Selling Shareholders a total consideration of €1.15m now, which will be satisfied by €1.0m in cash and the balance through the issue of 55,508 new ordinary Keywords shares (the "Consideration Shares"), giving Keywords 100% ownership of Kite Team.



The Consideration Shares will be credited as fully paid and rank pari passu with the existing issued ordinary shares of Keywords when issued. Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 55,508 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 11 April 2016. The Company's total issued share capital following admission will consist of 53,893,205 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 53,893,205 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company following admission.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"Since we acquired the initial 50% of Kite Team in July 2015, it has performed in line with our expectations. The experience of the team is translating into good business wins and momentum is building both in Spain and in Mexico. In Brazil, we are in the process of consolidating the activities of Kite Team with those of our previously acquired business, Reverb.



"We are making progress with moving our Spanish and Latin American audio recording work to Kite Team from our previous regional partners and with full ownership of Kite Team we will have a solid base from which to further develop our activities in Spain and South America."

6 Apr finnCap 245.00 Buy
5 Apr finnCap 245.00 Buy

3 May finnCap 276.00 Buy

Proactive investor -

Keywords Studios founders sell shares to meet demand


16:30 12 May 2016

Video game industry supplier's founders sell about 5.5mln shares

Keywords Studios founders sell shares to meet demand

The sale will enable Keywords to satisfy institutional demand for its shares


The founders of video game industry supplier Keywords Studios PLC (LON:KWS) are selling shares to meet institutional demand.

Keywords, which provides technical services to video game developers, said non-executive director Giorgio Guastalla and chief executive Andrew Day have together sold up to 5.5 million shares.

They have sold the shares, which represent about 10.2% of the company’s issued share capital, through their holding company PEQ Holdings.

PEQ and Andrew Day will keep about two thirds of their stakes or 14.8%. and 7.2%, respectively, of the issued ordinary share capital.

Day said: "The proposed sale will enable Keywords to satisfy institutional demand for the group's shares and broaden our shareholder base, whilst also allowing Giorgio to diversify his family's portfolio of investments which

has substantively been in Keywords since he and his wife founded the business in 1998.

"This is the first sale of shares since the IPO in 2013.”

Proactive investor - Over at video games services supplier Keywords Studios (LON:KWS), it will beat market forecasts when it reports interim results next month.

Recently acquired localisation and audio business Synthesis has been the driver, though its ‘excellent’ first half was in part due to a beneficial phasing of revenues between the first and second half.

Half year trading update

RNS


RNS Number : 9086F

Keywords Studios PLC

02 August 2016




2 August 2016







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios" or "the Group")



Half year trading update



Strong first half performance provides confidence for the full year



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry today provides an update on trading after another half year period of good like for like* growth substantially complemented by acquisitions.



The Group is pleased to announce that it expects to report revenues and adjusted PBT** comfortably ahead of expectations when it announces its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2016 in mid-September 2016. The outperformance was driven primarily by the recently acquired Localisation and Audio business, Synthesis; this delivered an excellent first half performance due in large part to a beneficial phasing of revenues between the first and second half. Given that it remains relatively early into our typically important second half, we are maintaining guidance for the year as a whole although the strong performance in the first six months naturally gives us a good level of confidence in delivering against our expectations for the full year.



Since the start of the year we have made four acquisitions. Synthesis has been exceptionally busy delivering its normal flow of audio, localisation and localisation testing projects in addition to managing some very large new localisation and audio projects that have come together in the past three months, contributing to an atypical trading pattern in which their peak production period has been both sharp and early in the year. The Manila based customer support team acquired from Ankama is moving to larger, newly fitted out offices and is expanding to deliver services to additional clients. Mindwalk joined the Group with effect from 1 June 2016 and is trading very much in line with our expectations. The acquisition of the Volta studio (announced on 29 July 2016), which provides concept art services, has extended the Group's Art service offering further upstream. The Group also brought forward the acquisition of the 50% of Kite Team it did not already own, a move that allowed for the integration of the operations of Synthesis in Spain, Brazil and Mexico with those of Kite Team and existing Keywords business in those territories. In addition, we are announcing today that the earn-out associated with the acquisition of Liquid Violet that was acquired in January 2014 has come to its planned conclusion. The final payments due under this agreement have now been made making the total paid for Liquid Violet c. £1.1m.



Across the games industry the mediums of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality continue to capture the headlines and while we are major recipients of services for art, audio, localisation and testing services for this innovative content, we believe the real potential is a few years hence.



The Group is continuing its acquisition strategy and maintains a healthy pipeline of high quality acquisition opportunities. The credit facility of up to €15m established with Barclays Bank, which was announced in May 2016 and has been used to help fund the Mindwalk and Volta acquisitions, leaves us well placed to complete further selective acquisitions this year.



The Group has not seen and does not expect any impact on trading of the UK referendum vote. The Board attributes this to the global nature of the business's earnings, and the fact that only 3% of revenues are denominated in sterling.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:



"We are delighted with our progress so far this year and are particularly pleased with the excellent contribution from Synthesis. This has enabled us to deliver a first half performance substantially ahead of our expectations such that we do not expect this year to be characterised by the typical weighting towards the second half. However, the strong first half underpins our confidence in our ability to meet expectations for the year as whole.



"We continue to win new clients and grow market share and are regularly seeing the benefits of our wide geographic reach and broad range of services as we introduce additional services to established clients.



"Overall, we look forward to another good year of progress as we continue to invest in existing and new businesses, building our talent pool and integrating the newer members of our Group."



* calculated on the basis of revenues being included for 2016 acquisitions from the date of acquisition and for the same period in the prior year

**The Group reports adjusted PBT before acquisition and integration expenses, share option charges, amortisation of intangibles and foreign currency gains

2 Aug Numis 390.00 Buy
2 Aug finnCap 334.00 Buy

Half-year Report

RNS


RNS Number : 6268J

Keywords Studios PLC

13 September 2016




13 September 2016



To view the Interim consolidated statement of changes in equity, please click here



http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6268J_1-2016-9-12.pdf



Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")



Half year results for the six months to 30 June 2016



Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its half year results for the six months to 30 June 2016.



Financial overview:

· Revenue, including contribution from acquisitions, increased by 77% to €42.4m (H1 2015: €23.9m)

· Adjusted profit before tax* up 177% to €6.0m (H1 2015: €2.2m)

· Adjusted earnings per share* up 99% to 8.55c (H1 2015: 4.29c)

· Net cash of €3.5m (H1 2015: €6.1m) after €13.7m of acquisition cash consideration and costs

· 10% increase in interim dividend to 0.44p per share (2015: 0.40p)



* before acquisition and integration expenses of €0.7m (H1 2015: €0.7m), share option charges of €0.3m (H1 2015: €0.1m), amortisation of intangibles of €0.6m (H1 2015: €0.4m) and foreign currency loss of €1.8m (H1 2015: €0.6m gain)



Operational overview:

· 30% increase in like for like** revenue includes exceptional second quarter performance by Synthesis

· Continued to invest in the development of the Group:

o Acquisition of leading localisation, audio and localisation testing business, Synthesis, in April

o Acquisition of China-based outsourced art creation firm Mindwalk completed in May

o Acquisition of Philippines-based customer support team from Ankama in March

o Acquisition of remaining 50% in Spanish and Latin American audio and localisation firm, Kite Team in April

o Further strengthened senior management team with three key appointments

· Five year revolving credit facility of up to €15m with Barclays Bank Plc secured

· 18% increase in clients using three or more services from 51 to 60***



** calculated on the basis of revenues being included for 2016 acquisitions from the date of acquisition and for the equivalent period in the prior year.

*** measured on a rolling 12-month basis, comparing 12 months ended June 2016 to the 12 months ended June 2015.



Current trading and outlook:

· Acquisition of Quebec City-based Volta in July 2016, has extended Group services into Concept Art

· Trading in the first two months of the second half has been in line with the Board's expectations. The particularly strong first half leaves the Board confident in delivering market expectations for the full year

· Selectively reviewing a strong acquisition pipeline





Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:



"The Group has delivered a first half performance comfortably ahead of our expectations, driven by good organic growth, but also substantially complemented by acquisitions which have further extended our service offering, market penetration and geographic reach.



"The Group's strong trading in the first eight months of the year means that we do not expect this year to be characterised by the typical weighting towards the second half. This performance gives us increased confidence in delivering against our expectations for the full year.



"We look forward to continuing to develop the business both organically, by extending relationships with many of our existing major games clients, and by acquisition, as we continue to review selective opportunities that could further extend our service offering or market penetration."

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 4482N
Keywords Studios PLC
26 October 2016
 
26th October 2016
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of Player Research Ltd
Service extension into player behavioural research
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Player Research Ltd  ("Player Research") for a total consideration of up to £1.3 million from its founder, Graham McAllister, and others (the "Sellers"). Based in Brighton, UK, Player Research provides consulting and user testing from its state of the art play testing laboratory to mobile, console and VR game developers throughout the world, helping them to attract, retain and monetise players.
 
The acquisition of Player Research is in line with Keywords' strategy to extend its services, with the objective of providing end to end services to its global client base covering all aspects of game production and live operations support. Player Research's technology, methodology and knowhow can be exported to Keywords secure production facilities in locations like Montreal, Dublin, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing providing much increased capacity, whilst also expanding the services in a way that adapts them to the varied nationalities and cultures allowing clients to better tailor their games for their targeted audiences.
 
Player Research was founded in 2012 by Graham McAllister and employs a number of PhDs and MScs at its research laboratory in Brighton, with expertise in fields such as Human-Computer Interaction, Neuroscience, Computer Science, Experimental Psychology, Human Factors and Cognitive Psychology.
 
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing, Keywords is paying an initial consideration comprised of £700,000 in cash and the issue to the Sellers of 65,280 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be subject to a two-year lock in period. Further cash consideration of up to £300,000 may be payable subject to Player Research achieving certain targets within two years of the acquisition.
 
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 65,280 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 31 October 2016. The Company's total issued share capital following admission will consist of 54,404,001 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 54,404,001 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company following admission.
 
 
Giacomo Duranti, Chief Operating Officer, commented:
"Keywords and Player Research have been exploring opportunities together over the past 3 years. As both companies have expanded their services to multiple points along the games lifecycle the fit between us has become increasingly apparent. We believe that by integrating Player Research within the Group, and rolling out its services into our existing studios to provide reach into all major gaming regions, we will be able to leverage the intellectual capital, talent pool and execution capability of both organisations to significantly enhance the value we are able to bring to our clients. We are delighted to be able to welcome Player Research's highly talented team to the Keywords family and we look forward to working closely together to build upon Player Research's excellent reputation and loyal client base."

26 Oct
finnCap
475.00
Buy

Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 4386O
Keywords Studios PLC
07 November 2016
 
7 November 2016
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios" or "the Group")
Trading Update
Significantly ahead of expectations for the year ended 31 December 2016
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, is pleased to announce that it now anticipates that revenues and adjusted PBT* for the full year to 31 December 2016 will be significantly ahead of current market expectations.  
This outperformance has been driven primarily by recently acquired localisation and audio business, Synthesis, sustaining higher levels of activity during the second half of the financial year than previously anticipated after a particularly strong second quarter which benefitted from a number of large projects alongside its normal flow of activity. In addition, strong like for like** growth across the business has reflected better than anticipated performances in localisation and audio, a sustained increase in demand for art services since the first half of the financial year and a continuation of the trends seen in the first half within the localisation testing, functional testing and customer services activities.
Beyond Synthesis, the acquisitions we have made since the beginning of the year of the Manila based customer support team, Ankama; the China-based outsourced art creation firm, Mindwalk; Volta studio which took us into concept art services; and the 50% of Kite Team not previously owned are integrating well and performing in line with expectations.
As a consequence, the Board expects adjusted PBT for the current year to be not less than €14m.
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:
"We are delighted with our strong progress so far this year and that we now anticipate delivering a performance significantly ahead of market expectations for the year as a whole.
"Having announced the acquisition of Player Research, the UK-based provider of player behavioural research consulting and user experience testing services, on 26 October 2016, we maintain a healthy pipeline of selectively chosen acquisition targets which we continue to review. These have the potential to extend our service offering, geographical reach and/or market penetration and to offer operational synergies as we leverage our existing facilities and management. In addition, we look forward to continuing to develop the business organically by investing in growing our existing and previously acquired businesses.
"We are starting to see signs of consolidation of the supplier base at a number of our clients which is something we welcome and have expected as a natural response from the games industry to an increasingly complex environment of multiple games platforms, now including Virtual and Augmented Reality, expanding geographies and languages and a multitude of monetisation models. We believe we are uniquely well positioned to benefit from this consolidation and, although there will inevitably be both wins and losses, overall we expect to be a net beneficiary of this process. We, therefore, remain very confident of our strategy and, at this early stage, maintain our current, cautiously optimistic expectations for 2017."
* before acquisition and integration expenses, share option charges, amortisation of intangibles and foreign currency movements.
** calculated on the basis of revenues being included for 2016 acquisitions from the date of acquisition and for the equivalent period in the prior year.

7 Nov
Numis
525.00
Buy
7 Nov
finnCap
475.00
Buy

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 4012P
Keywords Studios PLC
17 November 2016
 
17 November 2016
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of Enzyme Testing Labs
-      Strengthening the Group's testing capabilities
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Global Video-Games Services Inc. ("GVGS") together with its subsidiary companies including its principal trading entity, Enzyme Testing Labs Inc.  ("Enzyme Testing Labs") (together "Enzyme") from its founders, Yan Cyr and Emmanuel Viau and Fonds d'Investissement de la Culture et des Communications (FICC) (the "Sellers").
 
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing, Keywords Studios is paying the sellers and settling the financing obligations of FICC to a total of CAD$5.4m. This is being satisfied by the payment of CAD$4.9m in cash to the Sellers and CAD$0.5m to FICC in repayment of loans advanced to GVGS. This will be funded from the Group's existing cash resources.
 
Founded in 2002, Enzyme is one of the most recognised technical services brands in the video games industry. The consolidated, audited accounts for the year to 31 December 2015 show revenue of CAD$11.5m and profit before interest and tax of CAD$1.3m. Net assets at closing after adjusting for the loans being repaid are estimated to be CAD$2.3m.
 
Based in Montreal and St-Jérôme (60 km from Montreal) and with an office in Kawasaki near Tokyo, Enzyme's strengths are in Functional and Localisation Testing of video games for leading game publishers and developers. In addition, it provides Localisation Services and Focus Group Testing; the latter fitting well with recently acquired Player Research. Combining Enzyme with Keywords will significantly increase Keywords' Functional Testing capacity (which accounted for 8% of Group revenue in the first half of 2016) and provide significant operational synergies within the Group.  The business will be integrated into Keywords during the course of 2017 and we anticipate the resulting synergies will deliver significant margin improvement.
 
 
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:
"The acquisition of Enzyme brings together two of the leading video games testing providers, reinforcing Keywords' position as the market leader in the field, with testing operations in Montreal, St-Jérôme, Seattle, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Milan and Dublin.
"The acquisition will not only generate considerable cost synergies but it will provide greater scale, flexibility and breadth of services for our combined interactive media clients globally.
"We warmly welcome Enzyme's highly talented and passionate employees to the fast growing Keywords Studios family as we work together to deliver the highest quality, cost effective services to our clients around the world."

17 Nov
Numis
555.00
Buy
17 Nov
finnCap
500.00
Buy

On Wednesday, Keywords Studios PLC (KWS:LSE) closed at 513.00, 0.00% below its 52-week high of 513.00, set on Nov 21, 2016.

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 6333S
Keywords Studios PLC
22 December 2016
 
22nd December 2016
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of Sonox Audio Solutions, S.L.U.
-      Strengthening the Group's Audio services
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Sonox Audio Solutions, S.L.U. ("Sonox") for a total consideration of €650,000 from its founder, Francisco Barreras Benavente (the "Sellers"). Based in Madrid, Spain, Sonox provides audio recording and localisation services to video game companies targeting Spanish and Latin American markets.
 
Founded in 2010 by Francisco Barreras Benavente, Sonox has three audio recording studios in Madrid and manages a well-established network of translators, voice actors, audio engineers and voice directors in Spain. In addition, Sonox works with partner studios in Mexico and Brazil to provide audio and localisation services for those territories. Sonox also already provides certain services to the Group and its acquisition will enable the Group to capture the margins on those services. Following the acquisition, Francisco Barreras Benavente and the Sonox management  team will remain in the Group.
 
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in 2017 Keywords is satisfying the consideration through the payment of €500,000 in cash and the issue to the Sellers of 24,881 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be subject to a two-year lock in period.  
 
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 24,881 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 30 December 2016. The Company's total issued share capital following admission will consist of 54,428,882 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 54,428,882 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company following admission.
 
Fulvio Sioli, Regional Managing Director, Europe, Keywords Studios commented:
"Sonox has been working with Synthesis Iberia for some years and with a growing portfolio of leading game publishers as its clients. The merging of Sonox, Synthesis and Kite Team in Madrid presents a unique opportunity to establish clear leadership in this key market for games audio and text localisation. The facilities, talent and financial strength of our audio offering in Spain is truly unrivalled.
"We are delighted to be able to welcome Sonox's highly talented team to the Keywords family and we look forward to working closely together to fully integrate all three of our businesses in Madrid and build upon the excellent reputation enjoyed by them all."

Trading Statement

RNS


RNS Number : 2791W

Keywords Studios PLC

08 February 2017




8 February 2017







Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios" or "the Group")



Full year trading update



Sales and profits ahead of expectations for the year ended 31 December 2016

- Continued strong organic growth complemented by successful acquisitions

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry today provides an update on trading following a year of further strong organic growth and geographic expansion, complemented by a number of successful acquisitions.



The Group is pleased to announce preliminary unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2016 of €96.6m and adjusted PBT* of €14.8m, both of which are comfortably ahead of consensus market expectations. This performance has been driven by strong like-for-like growth, due to the continued growth of the established business as well as the contribution of the eight acquisitions completed during the year.



The Group continues to deliver on its strategy of growing organically and through acquisition in order to become the "go to" supplier of technical services to the video games industry globally. To this end, the Group is now comprised of six globally managed service lines operating from 27 production studios in 16 countries. During the year, the Group welcomed seven new businesses through acquisition; Ankama, Synthesis, Mindwalk, Volta, Player Research, Enzyme and Sonox have all contributed positively in further extending our client penetration, our geographic reach and the talent we have within the Group. Also acquired during the year was the 50% of Kite Team not already owned by the Group.



The Group invested cash of €20.7m for the eight acquisitions completed in 2016. These acquired businesses performed well and as previously reported, Synthesis, our largest investment to date, delivered an excellent performance. Following these acquisitions, the Group had €17m in cash at the year end and had utilised €8m of its €15m rolling credit facility. Its strong cash generation, coupled with available debt facilities, provides the Group with good headroom for further acquisitions in 2017.



Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:



"Our Group continues to grow revenues and profits whilst also growing a talent pool that is increasingly recognised as a resource that enables clients around the world to reduce complexity and focus on their core business of designing and publishing great video games. The development of new Virtual and Augmented Reality platforms only adds to that complexity and, whilst we have not assumed stronger demand for our services in this area in 2017 compared to 2016, it's an exciting new form of content delivery that brings greater interactivity to many content types and requires the skills and services that we have developed over many years at the forefront of interactive content.



"We have structured the management of the Group in order to support both further organic growth and the continued consolidation of our highly fragmented markets around the world.



"Our cross-selling efforts continue to bear fruit and we begin 2017 with a global sales and sales support team of 14 compared to 9 in 2016, which will help drive further organic growth. We also remain well-funded and continue to review a healthy pipeline of complementary acquisition opportunities, which will add to the talent pool, range of services, production capacity and the choice we can offer our clients. Although it's early in 2017, we are therefore confident of making continued progress in the year ahead."



*The Group reports adjusted PBT before acquisition and integration expenses, share option charges, amortisation of intangibles and foreign currency gains



Ends

8 Feb finnCap 692.00 Buy

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 1341X
Keywords Studios PLC
17 February 2017
 
17th February 2017
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of Spov Ltd,
Strengthening the Group's Art Services line of business
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Spov Ltd. ("Spov") for a total consideration of up to £1.2m in cash from its founder, Allen Leitch. Based in London, UK, Spov provides creative development, cinematics, UI, visual effects and motion graphics services to the video game and film markets. (www.spov.tv)
 
Founded in 2007 by Allen Leitch, Spov maintains a small team of creatives in London and manages a network of highly experienced designers, animators, film makers and artists to produce intricate footage for use in video games, film and TV. The company has worked on titles that include Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Watch Dogs, The Division, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare; Batman: Arkham Knight and Marvel's Doctor Strange.
 
 
Fred Stockton, Global Art Service Line Director, Keywords Studios commented:
 
"We are thrilled to have Allen and the Spov team of talented creative professionals join the Art Service Line at Keywords Studios.  Their skills and experience will enhance our ability to provide a broader range of services to our clients.  Likewise, we look forward to meeting with Spov clients to share with them the full spectrum of capabilities that Keywords Studios has to offer.  This acquisition will strengthen our market position as a leading provider of digital art services and will contribute to our continuing growth in this area."

Final Results
RNS
RNS Number : 4493B
Keywords Studios PLC
04 April 2017
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
 
4 April 2017
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")
 
Full year results for the year to 31 December 2016
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its full year results for the year to 31 December 2016.
 
Financial overview:
·     Group revenue (including effect of acquisitions) increased by 67% to €96.6m (2015: €58.0m)
·     Gross margin further improved to 38.0% (2015: 37.6%)
·     Adjusted profit before tax* increased by 86% to €14.9m (2015: €8.0m)
·     Adjusted basic earnings per share* up by 61% to 20.59c (2015: 12.81c)
·     Net cash flow from operating activities of €15.0m (2015: €3.4m)
·     Net cash** of €8.7m (2015: €17.3m)
·     10% increase in dividend to 1.33p per share (2015: 1.21p)
 
*before acquisition and integration expenses of €1.3m (2015: €1.1m), share option charges of €0.7m (2015: €0.4m), amortisation of intangibles of €1.6m (2015: €0.9m), and foreign currency loss of €1.7m (2015: loss of €0.5m)
 
**after payment of €21.1m net cash consideration for acquisitions (2015:  €7.4m) and €1.3m of acquisition costs and integration expenses (2015:  €1.1m), and including €8.4m of bank borrowings.
 
Operational overview:
·     24% increase in like for like*** revenue includes very strong performance by Synthesis
·     Eight acquisitions completed in the year as we continue to invest in the development of the Group:
o  Acquisition of customer support business, Ankama, in March
o  Acquisition of Beijing-based art creation business, Mindwalk, in May
o  Localisation, audio and localisation testing business, Synthesis, acquired in April
o  Acquired the 50% of Kite Team it did not already own in April
o  Acquisition of Quebec City-based concept art specialist, Volta, in July
o  Acquisition of consulting and user testing business, Player Research, in October
o  Acquired functional and localisation testing business in Montreal and St-Jerome, Enzyme, in November
o  Acquisition of Madrid-based audio and localisation services firm, Sonox Audio, completed in December
·     25% increase in clients using three or more services from 51 to 64****
 
*** calculated on the basis of revenues being included for 2016 acquisitions from the date of acquisition and for the equivalent period in the prior year.
**** measured on a rolling 12-month basis, comparing 12 months ended December 2016 to the 12 months ended December 2015.
 
Post period end / current trading:
·     Trading in the first two months of the year has been in line with the Board's expectations
·     Terms agreed for a revolving credit facility of up to €35m with Barclays Bank, which will provide further headroom for selective acquisitions
·     Continue to selectively review a strong acquisition pipeline
o  Acquisition of London-based Art creation agency, SPOV, providing services including; cinematics, UI, visual effects and motion graphics in February 2017
 
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:
 
"2016 saw Keywords continue to grow strongly, both organically and through acquisitions which increased our capacity and scale in existing service lines and expanded our service capabilities and geographical reach.
"This performance has seen the Group grow from full year revenues of just over €14m prior to its IPO in July 2013, derived from four service lines and five studios across three continents, to revenues of nearly €100m derived from six service lines and 27 studios across four continents at the end of 2016.
 
"We fully expect to make continued good progress during 2017 as we take advantage of the synergies afforded by our enlarged platform and as we make further selective acquisitions, with the support of our strong cash generation and enlarged debt facilities."
 
A presentation of the full year results will be made to analysts later this morning at MHP's offices.

4 Apr
finnCap
692.00
Buy

Acquisition of XLOC Inc.
RNS
RNS Number : 6675E
Keywords Studios PLC
10 May 2017
 
10th May 2017
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of XLOC Inc.
-      Globalization technology platform acquisition
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired XLOC Inc. ("XLOC") for a total consideration of $0.9 million from its founders, Stephanie O'Malley and Mason Deming (the "Sellers").
 
Based in Raleigh, NC, XLOC has developed the leading web-based integrated globalization content management system for videogames (XLOC), supported by consulting and customisation services.  Its proprietary software application can be integrated with any games development platform and enables game developers and publishers to more efficiently manage and automate the complex process of localising games content across multiple languages and platforms for simultaneous global launches and continuous publishing. 
 
The acquisition of XLOC is in line with Keywords Studios' strategy to extend its services, with the objective of providing end to end services to its global client base covering all aspects of game production and live operations support.
 
XLOC was founded in 2004 by Stephanie O'Malley and Mason Deming who had gained extensive experience of the localisation process through former roles in production and technology within Activision and by advising many leading video game development studios. The founders, along with the rest of the XLOC team, will remain in the Group.
 
Under the terms of the acquisition Keywords is paying a consideration comprised of $700,000 in cash and the issue to the Sellers of 19,134 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be subject to a two-year lock in period.
 
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 19,134 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 15 May 2017. The Company's total issued share capital following admission will consist of 55,636,269 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 55,636,269 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company following admission.
 
 
Fabio Minazzi, Global Head of Keywords Studios' Localisation Services, commented:
"We are delighted to welcome XLOC's talented team to Keywords Studios, having worked well together and recommended each other's solutions across many game titles over several years. XLOC brings to the Group a scaleable, leading, proprietary software application that is embedded in to the localisation processes of games developers.  Its system is relied upon from an earlier stage than Keywords Studios has typically been involved and will enable the Group to provide integrated software and services across the full localisation cycle, in addition to offering XLOC as a standalone solution.
"We look forward to working closely with XLOC to build upon their excellent reputation and loyal client base."

Acquisition of GameSim Inc.
RNS
RNS Number : 3530F
Keywords Studios PLC
17 May 2017
 
17 May 2017
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of GameSim Inc. established a new, Engineering, service line
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of GameSim Inc. ("GameSim"), a specialist  in outsourced engineering services and technology platforms for the video games industry and other virtual simulation applications, from its Founder and President, Andrew Tosh (the "Seller").
 
The acquisition of GameSim marks Keywords Studio's first step into the market for software engineering services. It is in line with its strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition to extend the Group's client base, market penetration or service lines, where the Group can leverage its existing expertise, multi-service platform, scale and global reach to generate synergies.
 
Based in Orlando, Florida, GameSim employs over 30 software engineers and artists and has a range of cutting edge, proprietary technology platforms which are integrated with client processes to develop video games and visually simulate environments for military and urban planning applications.  GameSim's founder Andrew Tosh is a software engineer who worked in the military simulation industry and then at Electronic Arts before starting GameSim in 2008. GameSim engineers and artists work on long running co-development projects as well as short turnaround engagements for their clients, which include EA, Zynga, and United States Department of Defense projects. GameSim achieved $4.1m in revenue for the year ended 31 December 2016. Andrew Tosh, along with the rest of the GameSim team, will remain in the Group.
 
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first year, Keywords Studios is paying the Seller a total of $4.76m for 100% of GameSim. This is being satisfied by $3.2m in cash, funded from the Group's existing resources, with the remainder satisfied by the issue of 151,725 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be subject to a one-year lock in period.
 
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 151,725 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 22 May 2017. The Company's total issued share capital following admission will consist of 55,787,994 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 55,787,994 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company following admission.
 
Keywords intends to grow further in the video games software engineering services market through acquisition and organic growth to build a seventh service line of scale, following in the path of its fast-growing art services business.
 
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:
"The acquisition of GameSim is an entry point into outsourced software engineering services and is highly complementary to our existing essential services to game developers and publishers around the world. Our intention is to use this as a platform from which to build a market leading engineering capability and we continue to review a number of compelling acquisition opportunities in this specialist and large, yet fragmented market.
"Providing the group with an additional avenue to growth, outsourced software engineering services are used by game developers in several ways such as: extensions to their own in-house engineering teams; to undertake projects to port developed games from one hardware platform to another; "hit squads" to solve complex problems; or for complete game development.  These engineering services combine particularly strongly with our art creation services but are also synergistic with our localisation and testing businesses in which game development skills can be deployed to increase automation and to integrate our services more directly with client side systems and processes. The market for game software development is growing with the increase in-game content, as games on consoles, social media, PCs, tablets and smart phones get bigger and richer in their definition and as games continue to move from a product to a services model requiring continuous content development, and as games developers and publishers outsource a greater proportion of this activity.
"We look forward to welcoming GameSim's highly talented teams to the fast growing Keywords group and to continuing to build upon its strong brand, leveraging Keywords' unparalleled geographic footprint, client relationships and financial strength to support its growth."
Andrew Tosh, Founder and President of GameSim, commented:
"It is exciting for GameSim to enter a new chapter as Keywords' first engineering studio. GameSim will take advantage of synergies with other Keywords studios to better service our customers in the video gaming, military simulation & training, and geospatial visualisation industries."

... expected to be earnings enhancing from year one ..

10:40 18/05/2017
Broker Forecast - finnCap issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
finnCap today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) and raised its price target to 885p (from 692p). Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
08:00 18/05/2017
Broker Forecast - Berenberg issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
Berenberg today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) and raised its price target to 970p (from 850p). Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 7322F
Keywords Studios PLC
22 May 2017
 
22 May 2017
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of Red Hot CG
Expansion of Art Service Line and further growth in Asia
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisition of 100% of Strongbox Ltd, a holding company with subsidiaries in China and Indonesia trading under the Red Hot CG ("Red Hot") brand. Red Hot are specialists in the production of graphical art assets for video games.
 
The acquisition of Red Hot is in line with Keywords' strategy of growing both organically and by acquisition. It will increase the capacity of Keywords' fast growing and higher margin Art Service Line, as well as bringing a number of attractive new clients to the art business at Keywords.
Founded in 2010 by Daniel Staton, Red Hot's operating hub is in Shanghai with satellite studios in the lower cost locations of Chengdu, Dalian and Zhengzhou in China plus Yogyakarta in Indonesia. This hub and spoke model gives the company the advantage of broader access to the Chinese pool of video game art talent, which is the largest in the world, while maintaining control and providing international business access through Shanghai.  It has 220 artists which, when added to Keywords existing 900 artist employees and contractors, will increase the Group's art production capacity by approximately 25%.
Red Hot has a strong client base, including many of the game development studios of Activision as well as Sony, Bethesda, Tencent and Capcom, which will complement Keywords' existing Art Service Line client base.
 
Daniel Staton (CEO), Leo Ling (COO), Claas Grimm (CRO) and the rest of the management team will remain with Red Hot, bringing many years of video game industry experience and art production expertise to the Art Service Line.  They will continue to run Red Hot whilst working closely with the other Art studios in the Group to bring additional services and production capacity to their existing and prospective clients.
 
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current year, Keywords is paying a total consideration of $6.0 million for 100% of Red Hot. This is being satisfied by $4.35m in cash, $1.0m of which is deferred until the third anniversary of acquisition, funded from the Group's existing resources. The remainder is being satisfied by the issue of 160,842 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be issued to the Sellers on the second anniversary of the acquisition.
 
In the year ended 31 December 2016, the Red Hot businesses generated revenues of $5.4m and underlying pre-tax profit of $0.9m. Good further growth is expected in 2017.
 
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:
"The acquisition of Red Hot further strengthens our fast growing, higher margin art services business, enhancing our unique client proposition which combines operations close to our clients, in the US and Canada, with those in lower cost locations across Asia. Following the acquisition, we believe the Keywords Art Service Line is the leading player in the outsourced market in terms of capacity and breadth of service. We warmly welcome Red Hot's highly talented teams to the growing Keywords family and we look forward to continuing to build upon its excellent reputation and loyal client base as part of the Group."
Daniel Staton, CEO of Red Hot Studios commented:
"We are delighted to be joining the Keywords Group as we continue to grow our business.  We believe that combining forces with Keywords' Mindwalk studio in China as well as leveraging the overall resources of the wider Keywords Group will enable us to accelerate our development and provide wider opportunities to all members of the Red Hot team."

14 Jun
Berenberg
980.00
Buy

Keywords Studios PLC (KWS:LSE) set a new 52-week high during today's trading session when it reached 878.50. Over this period, the share price is up 178.88%.

Half year trading update
RNS
RNS Number : 2172M
Keywords Studios PLC
27 July 2017
 
27 July 2017
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios" or "the Group")
 
Half year trading update
 
Strong performance in the first half of the year
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, is pleased to provide an update on trading for the six months ended 30 June 2017.
 
The Group has performed strongly during the first half, with preliminary unaudited revenues for the period up by 50% to €63.7m (H1 2016: €42.4m) and a 60% increase in adjusted PBT* to €9.6m (H1 2016: €6.0m). 
 
All the Group's service lines showed good organic growth, as measured on a like-for-like basis, with the exception of Audio which had a particularly tough comparative due to the exceptional performance of Synthesis in H1 2016, as previously reported.  The underlying like-for-like** revenue growth was 17%, or 28% when excluding Synthesis in both periods.
 
The Group continues to deliver on its strategy of growing organically and through acquisition in order to become the "go to" supplier of technical services to the video games industry globally. To this end, the Group is now comprised of seven globally managed service lines operating from 33 production studios in 17 countries.
 
Since the start of the year we have made four acquisitions of Spov, XLOC, GameSim and Red Hot which have, respectively, extended the Group's market position as a leading provider of digital art services; given the Group a content management system which allows it to provide integrated software and services across the full text localisation cycle; provided a first step into the market for video games related software engineering services; and positioned the Group as the leading global player in the outsourced art services market in terms of capacity and breadth and depth of service.
 
To date in 2017 the Group has invested net cash of €6.9m for the acquisitions described above and it continues to evaluate a healthy pipeline of high quality acquisition opportunities, in line with its acquisition strategy. The credit facility of up to €35m with Barclays Bank which was announced in April 2017, combined with continuing strong cash generation and the judicious use of Keywords shares to part-fund acquisitions where appropriate, leaves the Group well placed to complete further selective acquisitions this year.
 
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:
 
"We are delighted with our progress so far this year. This has enabled us to deliver a first half performance ahead of our expectations, underpinning our confidence in the Group at least meeting market consensus for the year as whole.
 
"We continue to win new clients and grow market share and are regularly seeing the benefits of our wider geographic reach and broader range of services as we introduce additional services to established clients.
 
"We look forward to another full year of strong progress as we continue to invest in existing and new businesses, building our talent pool and integrating the newer members of our Group."
 
Keywords Studios will provide a further update on trading with its half year results which it expects to announce in mid September.
 
*The Group reports adjusted PBT before acquisition and integration expenses, share option charges, amortisation of intangibles and foreign currency gains 
 
** Calculated on the basis that the H1 2016 comparative includes all of the 2017 and 2016 acquisitions as if they had been owned for the same period in 2016 as they have been in 2017.

09:20 27/07/2017
Broker Forecast - finnCap issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
finnCap today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) and raised its price target to 1000p (from 923p). Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Octopus investment >6%

whoosh.. share price has risen eightfold in two years and still capable of more.

In a world of leaks, the company did well to keep everyone quiet during negotiations with multiple targets ahead of today's announcement. And they look to have got themselves a bargain.

On the other hand, it could be that there have been leaks which are partly responsible for the rise already seen.

10:30 04/08/2017
Broker Forecast - Numis issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
Numis today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) and raised its price target to 1400p (from 1260p). Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

That's a significantly large upgrade. 11% higher than their previous target and 18% up from last night's close.

09:40 08/08/2017
Broker Forecast - Berenberg issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
Berenberg today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) and raised its price target to 1350p (from 1150p). Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

There is madness in the Market, that's for sure... A PE ratio about 100... sp about £11 and little or no USP . . . a few key workers could replicate this and smooth-talk their clients....added to which the yield is zippo and what have you got....?

Well clearly Brokers know something I don't . . . or maybe they see the fever and postulate it will continue . . . . Let's hope it does, for anyone buying at these levels.

It's all about FEVER. lol WanDisco doing well Fevertree as well . lol All Disco Fever. :-))

Interims Tues 19 Sept

Market buzz- Keywords Studios, which is an AIM stock with a wide following after its shares have rocketed from under 150p to above 1400p over the last three years, also is scheduled to report interim numbers.

In late July, the computer game industry services specialist revealed it was doing well in the first half of the year, with preliminary unaudited revenues up 50% to €63.7m and a 60% increase in adjusted PBT to €9.6m, which was substantially ahead expectations.

"With the results themselves, clearly we will be interested to see comments on trading over the important summer period, and also comments on confidence about prospects for further acquisitions, which have typically been highly value creative," said Numis, which is also house broker to this company too.

"Guidance for H2 profitability will also be important - we think management has been playing down the longer term prospect for margin improvement from current levels."

Half-year Report
RNS
RNS Number : 0936R
Keywords Studios PLC
19 September 2017
 
19 September 2017
 
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")
 
Half year results for the six months to 30 June 2017
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its half year results for the six months to 30 June 2017.
 
Financial overview:
·     Revenue, including contribution from acquisitions, increased by 50% to €63.8m (H1 2016: €42.4m)
·     Adjusted profit before tax* up 60% to €9.6m (H1 2016: €6.0m)
·     Adjusted earnings per share* up 55% to 13.2c (H1 2016: 8.5c)
·     Net cash of €1.1m (H1 2016: €3.5m) after €6.9m of net cash outlay on acquisitions
·     10% increase in interim dividend to 0.48p per share (2016: 0.44p)
 
 
Operational overview:
·     17% increase in like for like** revenue, or 28% when excluding Synthesis in both periods reflects the underlying growth of the group
·     Continued to invest in the development of the Group:
o  Acquisition of Spov, to enhance our Art offering, in February
o  Acquisition of XLOC, bringing a specialist localisation content management system for videogames development to the Group, in May
o  Acquisition of Gamesim, which provides the Group with a first step into software engineering services, in May
o  Acquisition of the Chinese based art group, Red Hot, in May adding further capacity and providing reach to talent pools in second and third tier cities in China
o  Further strengthened the senior management team with the appointment of a Group HR Director, a newly created position
o  Invested in facilities in India and Tokyo, adding up to 150 seats and audio / voice over recording studios respectively in response to demand
·     Five year revolving credit facility of €35m with Barclays Bank Plc secured
·     40% increase in clients using three or more services to 84 (H1 2016: 60)
 
 
Post period end, current trading and outlook:
·     Further investment in operational capacity and Group infrastructure to support growth in future periods:
·     Three acquisitions of Paris based audio and localisation service providers in August giving Keywords a market leading position in this key language
·     Strengthened the Board and management team with the appointments of Georges Fornay and Charlotta Ginman as Non-Executive Directors 
·     Expansion plans supported by investment in 8 facilities to add up to 700 seats across Art, Player Support, Functionality Testing, and Localisation Testing in the second half to accommodate organic growth in response to market demands
·     Selectively reviewing a strong acquisition pipeline
·     Trading in the first three months of the second half has been in line with the Board's expectations
 
*    before acquisition and integration expenses of €0.5m (H1 2016: €0.7m), share option charges of €0.4m (H1 2016: €0.3m), amortisation of intangibles of €1.2m (H1 2016: €0.6m) and foreign currency loss of €1.96m (H1 2016: €1.77m)
** calculated on the basis that the H1 2016 comparative includes all of the 2016 and 2017 acquisitions as if they had been owned for the same period in 2016 as they have been in 2017.
 
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:             
 
"We have delivered another strong set of results for the first six months of the year as we continue to pursue our strategy of organic and acquisition led growth as we build our global games services business." 
 
"Our success in providing a wider range of services to our existing client base, which is comprised of 23 of the 25 leading video game companies around the world, is evidenced by a 40% increase in the number of clients buying three or more services from us." 
 
"We continue to invest in larger facilities and additional talent in our existing business in support of organic growth while welcoming new businesses to the group through our active strategy to lead the consolidation of a highly-fragmented market."

19 Sep
Numis
1,400.00
Hold

19 Sep
finnCap
1,325.00
Hold

Shares today -WHY GET OFF NOW?
One of the issues that FinnCap analyst Harold Evans points out is that the company is ‘ticking every box except valuation’. The company is trading on a sky price to earnings ratio of 43.1-times 2017 earnings, this is more than double the FTSE 250 ratio

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 0200U
Keywords Studios PLC
19 October 2017
 
19th October 2017
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of d3t Ltd
Expansion of Engineering Service Line
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired d3t ltd ("d3t"), for a total consideration of £3 million from the founders Jamie Campbell and Stephen Powell and others (the "Sellers").
 
Based in the North West of England, between Liverpool and Manchester, d3t delivers premium quality outsourced software development services for video game developers and publishers internationally.
 
The acquisition of d3t is in line with Keywords Studios' strategy to grow organically and by acquisition as it selectively consolidates the highly fragmented market for video game services.  d3t brings additional skills, client relationships and geographic reach to Keywords, extending the strength and scale of its recently established Engineering service line.
 
Founded in 2011 and now employing 44 staff, d3t is an award-winning software development company with capabilities including HD re-mastering, porting, optimisation, rendering and game systems development. Over the course of the last six years they have delivered consistent high quality across dozens of projects for clients such as SEGA, Codemasters, Sony XDev and the BBC.
 
Jamie Campbell and Stephen Powell, along with the rest of d3t team, will remain with the business.  
 
In the year ended 31st of July 2017, d3t achieved revenues of £2.8 million and an underlying adjusted pre-tax profit of £0.4 million.
 
Under the terms of the acquisition Keywords is paying a consideration comprised of £2.4m in cash and the issue of 42,368 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be subject to a two-year lock in period.  
 
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 42,368 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 24 October 2017. The Company's total issued share capital following admission will consist of 56,211,141 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 56,211,141 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they can determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company following admission.
 
 
Giacomo Duranti, Chief Operating Officer, commented:
"The acquisition of d3t complements our recent acquisition GameSim's capabilities to extend the services, scale and geographical presence of our Engineering offering. With increasing demand in the video games industry for reliable, high-quality outsourced software engineering services, we are building a strong offering to support our clients globally.
 
We are delighted to welcome the highly talented and experienced team at d3t to the Keywords family and we look forward to working closely together to build upon the company's excellent reputation, track record and client relationships."
 
 
Jamie Campbell commented:
"We are delighted to be joining the Keywords Group. d3t was founded with the sole aim of being an invaluable external development partner to the games industry and other interactive sectors. Over the course of six years we have become leaders in the field of high-value engineering offering a professional, wide ranging service.
 
We feel there is a great deal of synergy with Keywords' strategy to be the very best technical service provider to the video games industry, and we look forward to our continued expansion as part of the Group."

Keywords to acquire VMC
StockMarketWire.com
Keywords Studios has announced that the Company has entered into a conditional agreement with Volt Information Sciences to acquire VMC Consulting Corporation and Volt Canada Inc. (collectively VMC) for around $66.4m.

The Company said the proposed deal remains subject to certain working capital adjustments.

The Consideration and working capital adjustments and related transaction costs are intended to be funded by a fully underwritten cash placing of approximately £75m (before expenses) of new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company.

Keywords added:

The Board believes that the Acquisition has a compelling strategic and financial rationale as it:

- Brings to the Group a leading provider of Functional Testing and Customer Support in North America, with adjusted revenue of USD $57.4 million and adjusted EBITDA of USD $6.4 million on an annualised basis in the year to October 2017[1]

- Increases Keywords' market share and footprint, growing Functional Testing and more than doubling the size of its Customer Support offering, in the key North American market

- Adds a business of scale, with a reputation for a high quality service and a strong, blue chip client base

- Has an attractive 'Embedded Technical Services' offering, wherein VMC manages various technical services within its clients' premises through long-standing client relationships. The Board believes this service affords the Group the opportunity to cross-sell Keywords' broader services to VMC's client base, including as embedded services, and to offer VMC's embedded service model to its own major clients

- Is recognised in the market as being the "go-to" outsourced manager of crowd-based testing of games by vetted private individuals through its 'Global Beta Test Network' which is attractive to Keywords and offers material cross selling and roll-out opportunities

- Is expected to benefit from being part of a group focused on similar services and with global reach (as opposed to being part of a broader staffing business)

- Should deliver, in the view of management, material cross-selling, cost saving and margin improvement opportunities under Keywords' management

- Is expected to be significantly earnings enhancing in the first full year

The Acquisition is expected to be completed on or around 30 October 2017, conditional upon, amongst other things, completion of the Placing.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:

"We're thrilled to announce the acquisition of VMC which, as our largest acquisition to date, represents an important milestone in our strategy to selectively consolidate the fragmented video games market and generate synergies through scale in certain services and geographies.

"VMC is an organisation we've admired for several years for its reputation, scale and high quality service as well as its attractive embedded technical services and crowd-based testing services.

"With secure testing labs in Seattle and Montreal, very close to Keywords own studios, we expect to be able to leverage the strengths of both organisations while achieving significant cost synergies to deliver profit performance similar to that of the rest of the Group.

"We look forward to working with the team at VMC to support their growth as part of a group providing similar services as we realise the benefits of combining our complementary services and locations into what we believe will be a compelling offering for our broadened client base not only in North America but also internationally."



At 1:38pm: (LON:KWS) Keywords Studios share price was +50p at 1437p


Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

That's a biggy. And the placing was snapped up rapidly. Several other acquisitions in the pipeline apparently, but this one looks seriously important in the company's growth plan.

Yes very rapidly, in two hours all shares snapped up. :-))

13:00 25/10/2017
Broker Forecast - Numis issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
Numis today upgrades its investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) to buy (from hold) and set its price target at 1865p. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
12:20 25/10/2017

Broker Forecast - finnCap issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
finnCap today upgrades its investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) to buy (from hold) and raised its price target to 1677p (from 1325p). Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Grief...PE ratio= 136 looks likely shares are too expensive....
Just how many game-developers need translations? - and why aren't they using local linguists?
finnCap must know something I can't fathom....

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 1893Z
Keywords Studios PLC
13 December 2017
 
13th December 2017
 
 
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
 
Acquisition of Sperasoft
Services Extended into Co-Development, expanding Engineering Service Line
Entry into Eastern Europe
 
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Sperasoft Inc and Sperasoft Studio LLC (together, "Sperasoft"), for a total consideration of $27 million from the founders Igor Efremov, Alexei Kudriashov and Mark Rizzo (the "Sellers").
 
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Sperasoft provides game development, art creation and software engineering services to video game developers and publishers around the world from its production studios in St Petersburg and Volgograd, Russia and Krakow, Poland. 
 
Founded in 2004, Sperasoft employs 400 software engineers and artists. The company offers a full range of services for initial game development as well as developing games in live operations.  Specifically, these services include:
 
·     Full game development and co-development in which Sperasoft will develop the game or an area of the game on behalf of the game company, including creating the art assets for the game.
·     Live operations in which Sperasoft develops new features and downloadable content packages to ensure the games they support continue to keep players excited and engaged.
·     Server side infrastructure development and network operations support in helping build and maintain massive online platforms to support multiplayer online games.
·     Porting and remastering services in which Sperasoft will adapt a game to run on a different platform or upgrade a game for an older generation platform to a run on current generation devices including the remastering of the art and animation.
 
Over the years, Sperasoft has delivered consistent high quality work for its clients including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Warner Bros and Riot Games. For instance, the company is proud of the recent work of its St Petersburg studio, which worked alongside five of Ubisoft's internal studios to develop Assassin's Creed: Origins, which launched to critical acclaim on 27th October 2017.
 
The acquisition of Sperasoft is in line with Keywords Studios' strategy to grow organically and by acquisition as it selectively consolidates the highly fragmented market for video game services.  Sperasoft adds considerable expertise and scale to Keywords new and growing Engineering Services business and adds additional scale to the Art creation business.  In joining the Group, Sperasoft also provides Keywords with production centres and supporting management in Russia and Poland which are important locations for video game services talent across all of Keywords service lines.
 
Igor, Alexei, Mark and the rest of the Sperasoft team will remain with the business and assist the wider group with its growth plans in Engineering Services and in developing the wider business within Eastern Europe.  
 
Sperasoft has grown steadily over the years increasing revenues from $10.4m in 2015 to $16m in 2016. It is anticipated to grow to approximately $20m for the year ending 31 December 2017. The underlying adjusted EBITDA for 2017 is expected to be approximately $2m.
 
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first year, Keywords is paying a total consideration of $27m. This is being satisfied by $22m in cash, $1.0m of which is deferred until the first anniversary of the acquisition, funded from the Group's existing resources. The remainder is being satisfied by the issue of 260,049 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be issued to the Sellers on the first anniversary of the acquisition and will then be subject to orderly market provisions for a further 12 months.
 
 
Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios, commented:
"The acquisition of Sperasoft provides us with an entry point into co-development, positioning us as a strategic partner to games developers at the early stages of the games development lifecycle. As games are becoming bigger and are higher definition, game developers are increasingly relying upon co-development arrangements with companies like Sperasoft to provide them with broader capability to develop both initial games and additional content and features post launch.
 
"Sperasoft adds considerably to our engineering services division which we intend to continue to build organically and through acquisition, as well as significantly enlarging our range of services and geographic footprint.
 
"We are delighted to welcome Sperasoft to the Keywords family and we look forward to working closely with their highly talented team to build upon their strong industry reputation and relationships with some of the world's leading games developers and publishers."
 
 
Igor Efremov, Chief Executive Officer of Sperasoft, commented:
"We are delighted to be joining Keywords Studios in a union that we believe will enable Sperasoft to grow and expand our offering to our existing partners as part of a larger group. We look forward to working with other members of the Group as we are confident that our vision and commitment to providing the very best support to the video games industry is very much aligned."
 

Keywords Studios: Berenberg reiterates Buy with a target price of 2020p.

Trading Statement
RNS
RNS Number : 5685D
Keywords Studios PLC
01 February 2018

1 February 2018


Keywords Studios plc
("Keywords Studios", "the Group")

Full year trading update

Strong financial performance- strengthening our market leading position

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides an unaudited trading update for the year ended 31 December 2017, following a year of further strong organic growth and geographic expansion, complemented by a number of significant and successful acquisitions.

The Board is pleased to announce that it expects revenues to be not less than €150m (FY16: €96.6m) and adjusted PBT* of at least €22.5m (FY16: €14.9m), both of which are comfortably ahead of consensus market expectations. Strong organic growth remains a feature of the Group's performance and this has been supplemented by acquisitions as the Group continues to deliver on its strategy in order to become the "go to" supplier of technical services to the global video games industry. The Group is now comprised of seven globally managed service lines operating from 42 production studios in 20 countries, compared to four service lines operating from five production studios in five countries at the time of our IPO in July 2013.

During the year, we welcomed eleven businesses into the Group across all its existing service lines as well as its newly established Engineering service line. 2017 saw two of the Group's largest acquisitions to date, VMC and Sperasoft, which have further strengthened our service offerings and client penetration and extended our geographic reach and access to talent. Sperasoft enabled our entry into Co-Development, in which multiple services including game programming and art creation are delivered holistically in the game development phase, whilst VMC has bolstered our Engineering capabilities. These significant acquisitions represent yet further steps in the pursuit of our strategy and we are pleased with how smoothly they are being integrated with the rest of the Group.

The Group has invested net cash of €89.1m in the acquisitions described above, funded by the Group's strong cash generation, available debt facilities and a successful £75m equity placing in October 2017. The placing further demonstrated the support of our existing shareholders as well as enhancing our shareholder base through the addition of a number of new institutional investors. Following these acquisitions, the Group had €30.5m in cash at the year end and had utilised €18.3m of its €35m rolling credit facility, which leaves the Group well placed to complete further selective acquisitions in 2018.

The Group's effective tax rate has continued to decrease as we make better use of our brands, operating models and tools from our Dublin operational headquarters in support of our business around the world, much of which is in higher tax rate jurisdictions including Canada, the US, Japan, India and Italy. The Group's effective tax rate based on Keywords Studios' measure of profit before taxation in the period was 20.5% (2016: 21.7%). We note the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the United States on 22 December 2017. Our preliminary view is that we can expect a devaluation of some of our deferred tax liabilities in 2017 due to the reduction in the statutory federal tax rate to 21%. While we continue to review the full future impact of the new US tax legislation on the Group, we currently anticipate that the changes will not have a material impact on the Group's effective tax rate. We will give updated guidance on the impact of these provisions together with our final results later this year.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:
"We are delighted with the Group's performance as we grew revenues and profits strongly again this year. Our ever-increasing geographic footprint and broader range of services have combined to grow market share, introduce additional services to established clients and win new clients.

"The eleven acquisitions in 2017 demonstrate strong progress in our strategy to selectively consolidate the fragmented video games market and generate synergies through scale, and our entry into Engineering and particularly Co-Development, enhances our positioning as a strategic partner to game developers and publishers, whilst continuing to ensure we are not directly exposed to the commercial performance of individual titles. As games are becoming bigger and are higher definition, game developers are increasingly relying upon co-development arrangements with companies like Keywords to provide them with broader capability to develop both initial games and ongoing content and features post-launch.

"We look forward to another year of strong progress as we continue to invest in existing and new businesses, building our talent pool and integrating the newer members of our Group."


*The Group reports adjusted PBT before acquisition and integration expenses, share option charges, amortisation of intangibles and foreign currency gains

.
Keywords studios: Berenberg reiterates buy with a target price of 2,040p

08:10 26/03/2018
Broker Forecast - Peel Hunt issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
Peel Hunt today initiates coverage of Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) with a accumulate investment rating and price target of 1850p. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com Broker Forecasts data provided by www.sharesmagazine.co.uk

Final Results
RNS
RNS Number : 1944K
Keywords Studios PLC
09 April 2018



9 April 2018


Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Full year results for the year to 31 December 2017

Another excellent performance reflecting strong organic and acquisitive growth

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its full year results for the year to 31 December 2017.

Financial overview:
· Group revenue (including effect of acquisitions) increased by 57% to €151.4m (2016: €96.6m)
· Adjusted EBITDA* up 57% to €26.3m (2016: €16.7m), representing a margin of 17.4% (2016: 17.3%)
· Adjusted profit before tax* increased by 55% to €23.0m (2016: €14.9m)
· Adjusted basic earnings per share* up by 52% to 31.18c (2016: 20.59c)
· Adjusted operating cash generation** increase of 48% to €21.9m (2016: €14.8m)
· Net cash*** of €11.1m (2016: €8.7m)
· Final dividend of 0.98p (2016: 0.89p); 10% increase in total dividend to 1.46p per share (2016: 1.33p)

Operational overview:
· 15.1% increase in like for like**** revenue
· 11 acquisitions completed to expand our existing services lines (including a new engineering service line) and extend our geographical reach, including our two largest acquisitions to date:
o Acquisition of VMC in October for $66.4m giving the Group leadership in functional testing in North America, significantly increased our presence in player support services, added new service delivery models including Embedded Technical Services and the Global Beta Test Network
o Acquisition of Sperasoft in December for $27m brought strength in co-development, extended our Engineering and Art capabilities, and provided entry points into Eastern Europe
· Good progress made with integrating acquisitions, with multiple operations being integrated together in Paris, Mexico City, Seattle and Madrid
· Invested in adding capacity for organic growth across multiple studios
o Continued success in cross-selling our extended services with a 45% increase in clients using three or more services from 64 to 93

*before acquisition and integration expenses of €3.0m (2016: €1.3m), share option charges of €1.4m (2016: €0.7m), amortisation of intangibles of €3.0m (2016: €1.6m), and foreign currency exchange loss of €3.6m (2016: loss of €1.7m)
**cash flow from operations plus acquisition related expenses of €3.0 (2016: €1.3m), plus exceptional working capital costs related to the VMC acquisition of €3.0m (2016: nil), plus €2.3m in VMC receipts held by a third party on behalf of the Group and passed to the Group post year end. In the comparative year, multimedia tax credits (MMTC) of €1.6m were received in respect of claims prior to 2015
***after payment of €87.0m net cash consideration for acquisitions (2016: €21.1m), €3.0m of acquisition costs and integration expenses (2016: €1.3m), and £75.0m raised (before expenses) via an equity placing (2016: nil).
**** calculated on the basis of revenues being included for 2017 acquisitions from the date of acquisition and for the equivalent period in the prior year.

Current trading and outlook:
· Acquisitions announced separately today:
o Cord Worldwide Limited and Laced Music Limited for a total consideration of £4.5m
o Maximal Studio for an initial cash consideration of €0.3m and €0.2m deferred subject to performance
· The typically quieter first quarter has seen activity levels in line with our expectations and the positive momentum in the business gives us confidence in the outcome for the full year
· Encouraging early wins for new co-development services
· Agreed heads of terms for a revolving credit facility of up to €105m
· Acquisition pipeline remains healthy

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"The Group has delivered another strong performance with good organic growth supplemented by a number of acquisitions including two of our largest acquisitions to date.

"Our organic investment and acquisitions have added significant scale to our existing service lines and extended both our service range and geographical reach, establishing a new Engineering service line, bringing additional capabilities in co-development, content management, and delivering services from within clients' premises, and providing us with a presence in Eastern Europe.

"We entered 2018 with pro forma revenues of €225m, across seven service lines and 42 studios in four continents, compared to just over €16m derived from four service lines and five studios in 2013 - the year of our IPO.

"We expect to make continued strong progress as we realise the full benefits of our enhanced services platform and with the financing in place to support further organic and acquisitive growth in 2018."

A presentation of the full year results will be made to analysts at 9.30am today at MHP's offices. There will also be a live, listen only webcast of the presentation and a recording will be made available via www.keywordsstudios.com. To register for access, please contact Charles Hirst at MHP Communications on +44 20 3128 8193 or email keywords@mhpc.com.

08:00 10/04/2018
Broker Forecast - Peel Hunt issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
Peel Hunt today reaffirms its add investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) and set its price target at 1850p. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com Broker Forecasts data provided by www.sharesmagazine.co.uk

SMALL CAP SHARE IDEAS: Video games outsourcing firm Keywords Studios expands amid growing industry
By Philip Whiterow, Proactive Investors, For Thisismoney.co.uk
Published: 12:49, 23 April 2018 | Updated: 16:47, 23 April 2018


Keywords Studios operates in the highly fragmented world of ancillary services for computer games makers and is rapidly becoming the 800lb gorilla of that sector.
The company is trusted and relied upon as a partner by many of the world’s leading video game companies during the concept, development and post-publication phases of new content.
Localisation is the core of the business. Essentially this means translation into local language and ensuring the audio quality, player support and so on is up to scratch.
Growth recently has been rapid and global with facilities now in multiple locations across four continents.

Growing industry: Keywords Studios offers ancillary services to computer games makers
Andrew Day chief executive said: ‘We entered 2018 with pro forma revenues of €225million, across seven service lines and 42 studios in four continents, compared to just over €16million derived from four service lines and five studios in 2013 - the year of our IPO’.
By its own admission, Keywords has a big appetite for acquisitions.
Management likes to make six small bolt-on acquisitions each year and one or two larger purchases.

Examples of ‘larger purchases’ include North America-focused VMC Consulting, which it bought for $66million last October, financed by an underwritten share placing.
The new shares were sold through a book-build exercise and snapped up in about two hours, which underlines how highly regarded is the video games services group at present.
Shares over the last three years have rocketed from 153p to 1,746p as the carefully built portfolio, which ranges from translation services through to augmented and virtual reality services, has driven large rises in sales and earnings.

VMC looks to be more of the same. Keywords expects the latest addition to be ‘significantly earnings enhancing’ almost immediately.
Adjusted revenue of the US group in the year to October was $57.4million and underlying profits an annualised $6.4million.
The purchase will more than double Keywords' customer support operation in the North American market as well as growing market share and footprint.
Cross-selling has been a fundamental plank of the strategy and the number of clients using three or more of Keywords’ services increased to 93 in 2017 from 64 in 2016 and 51 in 2015.
German bank Berenberg, which rates the shares a ‘buy’ and has a price target of 2,060p, sees this trend as evidence that computer games publishers and developers are moving away from ‘tactical outsourcing’ towards strategic arrangements with trusted partners.
Crucially, it has made its first inroads into the eSports market, mostly through the provision of its services for game development and in-game support, but also via marketing.
ESports – football, rugby, Formula One to name three - are played electronically by teams with increasingly large numbers of people watching.
By 2020, the market is tipped to be generating £1billion annually in revenues and, like video games, there is a requirement for localisation and consistent quality.

ESports – football, rugby, Formula One to name three - are played electronically by teams with increasingly large numbers of people watching
Keywords highlights that it is continuing to seek out ways to ‘leverage the growth in eSports further,’ Berenberg observed.
The most recent acquisitions have focused on adding extra music and audio services to the group’s offering.
Cord Worldwide and Laced Music were acquired from the Cutting Edge Group for £4.5million and Maximal Studio from its owners for up to €500,000.
Being able to offer music services to clients will further enhance its reputation as the leading provider of services to the global video games industry, Keywords said.
Results for 2017 further underlined the rapid progress. Group revenue rose 57 per cent to €151.4million while adjusted profit before tax jumped 55 per cent to €23million. There was a dividend of 1.46p, up from 1.33p in 2016, but this not an income stock, far from it.
The share price of 1,685p points to an earnings multiple of 35 this year.
Like the well-backed share placing, this rating suggests the market has more than a degree of confidence that growth will continue.
As for current trading, Keywords noted that the first quarter is traditionally one where the video games industry takes a breather and that activity levels are currently in line with expectations.
Forecasts in the market point to sales nudging $250million and profits €37million, again, both substantial increases.
True, the current rating allows little margin for error but so far there has been little evidence of Keywords missing its footing and in markets growing so rapidly that still looks to be an opportunity.

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 5983P
Keywords Studios PLC
30 May 2018

30 May 2018


Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Acquisition of Fire Without Smoke

Strengthening the Group's Art Services Line


Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Fire Without Smoke Ltd ("Fire Without Smoke") for a total consideration of up to £5.2m from the founders Will O'Connor, Michael David Thomson and others (the "Sellers").

Headquartered in London and with a studio in Montreal, Fire Without Smoke provides a full suite of creative and marketing services to game publishers and developers, creating assets such as game trailers, marketing art and materials for esports events, and providing marketing consultancy and general design services to the video game industry.

Founded in 2013 and now with [40] staff between London and Montréal, Fire Without Smoke works with major game publishers such as Sony, Square Enix, Riot Games, Deep Silver, Sega, Capcom and Ubisoft.

Will O'Connor will continue as Managing Director and the other founders, together with the rest of the talented team, will also remain with the business.

For the year ending 31 May 2018, Fire Without Smoke is expected to have revenues of £2.8m and adjusted profits before tax of £0.7m.

Under the terms of the acquisition Keywords is paying a consideration comprised of £3.85m in cash, £0.5m of which is deferred until the first anniversary of acquisition and subject to certain performance targets, and the issue of 77,006 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be issued to the Sellers on the first anniversary of the acquisition and will then be subject to orderly market provisions for a further 12 months.

Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords Studios commented:

"Fire Without Smoke's specialised offering represents an excellent addition to the Group's existing capabilities and adds some exciting new services to our global service platform. Their high end video game trailers expertise will be of great interest to Keywords' large client base, as will their broad suite of creative services, which range from marketing strategy to providing marketing content for events including esports tournaments, which can play a significant role in influencing the success of event and game launches.

"We are delighted to welcome the talented and passionate teams of Fire Without Smoke to the Keywords family as we continue to build the business in London, in Montreal and in other Keywords locations around the world."

New Revolving Credit Facility
RNS
RNS Number : 2610Q
Keywords Studios PLC
05 June 2018

05 June 2018

Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

New Revolving Credit Facility for up to €105m agreed


Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today confirms the completion of a new revolving credit facility, in line with the terms outlined in the Group's full year results announcement on 9 April 2018.

The new facility is being provided by Barclays Bank plc, HSBC Bank plc and Lloyds Banking Group plc for an initial €75m over a three-year term, with the option to extend the facility up to €105m and by a further two years. It replaces the existing €35m facility and is on improved terms.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"We are pleased to have finalised this significantly expanded facility, on terms which improve upon our previous arrangement, in line with our intention of maintaining a conservative mix of equity and debt funding to support our investments in both the underlying business and new activities.

"We have made 4 acquisitions to date this year and, over the last twelve months, we have invested to substantially expand our capacity across six existing and five new facilities.

"We are reviewing a strong pipeline of acquisition candidates and organic investment opportunities as we continue to build our business organically and through acquisition. This facility gives us the flexibility and headroom to act on our investment decisions whilst continuing to enhance shareholder value."

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 8634Q
Keywords Studios PLC
11 June 2018

11 June 2018


Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Acquisition of Blindlight

Keywords goes to Hollywood


Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Blindlight LLC ("Blindlight") for a total consideration of up to $10m, from the founder, Lev Chapelsky (the "Seller").

Founded in 2001 and based in Hollywood, California, Blindlight enjoys a leading position in the provision of Hollywood production services for the video games industry. The company works on behalf of game publishers and developers in procuring specialised talent and managing the entire production processes for the parts of games that benefit from Hollywood production resources. Blindlight's service disciplines include voiceover production, celebrity acquisition and rights management, game writing, music, sound design and motion capture.

Blindlight works with top game producers around the world (including Bethesda, NCSoft, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Ubisoft) making the creative expertise of Hollywood readily available for the video games industry. The addition of Blindlight to the Group will increase the value of the services provided by Keywords and contribute to making those services more accessible to a wider customer base.

Blindlight achieved EBITDA of an average of $1m per annum over the three-year period to 31 December 2017. Under the terms of the acquisition Keywords is paying an initial $3.64m in cash and will issue 64,521 new ordinary shares in Keywords to the Seller on the first anniversary of the acquisition which will then be subject to orderly market provisions for a further 12 months. Deferred consideration of up to $4.8m will be payable to the Seller in cash depending on the performance of the business in the 12-month periods to the first and second anniversaries of the acquisition.

Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords Studios commented:

"Keywords and Blindlight have got to know each other well over the past three years and we see good opportunities to leverage both businesses to offer a wider range of world leading services to our clients. We are delighted to welcome Lev and the rest of the team to the Keywords family.

"Following our recent acquisition of music services companies, Cord Worldwide and Laced, we see excellent opportunities for Blindlight to bring these services to Los Angeles, as well as providing access to further opportunities for our downstream production services of translation and localised voice over."

A clip about the company in todays DM

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Launch of Keywords Ventures Ltd
RNS
RNS Number : 6483T
Keywords Studios PLC
05 July 2018

5 July 2018

Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Launches Keywords Ventures Ltd ("KWV") with Initial Investment in an Automated Test Solution for Compliance with the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has established Keywords Ventures which will make modest investments in innovative technologies and services that will benefit its clients, whilst accelerating the success of investee companies through access to its global platform and relationships.

Incorporated in the UK, KWV will have a remit to identify and support innovative new ventures, complementary to those of Keywords and where the Group believes that its game developer and publisher client base would benefit from improved access to those technologies and services. Investee companies will benefit from both Keywords funding and associated commercial agreements providing access to Keywords global reach, whilst Keywords will benefit from its ability to drive further value from its investments by generating revenues from its client base. An investment committee, formed of senior members of the Keywords executive team, many of whom have started and run their own businesses and have technical backgrounds, will propose investments and commercial arrangements to the Board of Keywords, who will agree funding on a case by case basis before taking what will typically be minority stakes in selected investee companies.

Keywords is also announcing today the first investment being made by Keywords Ventures. KWV will invest up to £300,000, dependent upon development milestones, in Series A funding for a 45% shareholding in a pre-revenue company, AppSecTest Ltd, creator of AS Analyser, a cloud based automatic testing solution for mobile apps, including games. AS Analyser very effectively analyses apps for compliance with the GDPR, producing a detailed report of those aspects of the app that are likely to contravene the regulations. AS Analyser is differentiated by its ability to test products without requiring access to source code, making it an extremely efficient way of establishing possible areas of non-compliance.

Alongside the funding being provided to accelerate the development of AS Analyser, Keywords has entered into an exclusive worldwide licence to commercialise AS Analyser. Keywords will begin client trials of AS Analyser during July with a possible full deployment of the solution in September.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios, commented:

"We are excited by the establishment of KWV, which we believe will help bring products, technology and services to market that will be attractive to our clients. Our established relationships with most of the world's leading games companies, and our expanded global presence, provide a strong platform to support investees' growth while adding further value to the relationships we enjoy with our clients.

"Our strategy to consolidate the fragmented market for video games services remains unchanged with KWV being highly complementary to this in bringing additional capabilities to our global services platform. KWV will be making selective and relatively small investments in companies where we can help commercialise complimentary products or services, with our annual investment in KWV unlikely to exceed 5% of our annual spend on acquisitions.

"Our investment in AppSec Test Ltd is intended to help bring AS Analyser to market through our extensive geographic reach across the video games industry and beyond. We believe AppSec Test fits the investment model of KWV particularly well. We look forward to supporting the testing and improvements to its existing Android version of AS Analyser and also the development of its iOS version, as AppSec Test moves towards full commercialisation."

Acquisition of Snowed In
RNS
RNS Number : 2354V
Keywords Studios PLC
20 July 2018

20 July 2018

Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Acquisition of Snowed In

Keywords expands its Engineering Service Line in Canada


Keywords Studios, the international services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Snowed In Studios Inc. ("Snowed In") for a total consideration of up to CAD$4m, from its current owners, Jean-Sylvain Sormany, Tim Vito and Evan Hahn (the "Sellers").

Founded in 2010 and based in Ottawa, Canada, Snowed In offers engineering and co-development services to the video-games industry and has a strong global reputation and well-established relationships with clients such as Ubisoft and Bethesda. The Company has 29 employees all working in-house in its office in Ottawa led by the current owners, who will remain with Snowed In to drive its growth as part of Keywords.

Snowed In achieved EBITDA of CAD$0.8m in its last financial year ending January 31 2018, from revenue of CAD$2.4m. Under the terms of the acquisition Keywords is paying an initial CAD$2.67m in cash and will issue 37,983 new ordinary shares in Keywords to the Sellers on the first anniversary of the acquisition which will then be subject to orderly market provisions for a further 12 months. Deferred consideration of up to CAD$0.2m will be payable in cash to the Sellers 18 months after the acquisition.

Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords Studios commented:

"The addition of Snowed In to the Group will add strength and scale to our recently established Engineering service line and enable Snowed In to take advantage of the Group's very strong presence in the region to support its growth.

"Having grown the Engineering service line from nothing in May 2017, we now employ over 300 software engineers in multiple regions, and I'm delighted that Jean-Sylvain, Tim, Evan and their highly talented and creative team are joining the Group as we continue to grow."

Ends

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 4096V
Keywords Studios PLC
23 July 2018

23 July 2018

Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Acquisition of Yokozuna Data
Entering the market for Predictive Analytics for the Video Games Industry

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired the business and assets of Yokozuna Data ("YD") from Silicon Studio Corporation ("Silicon"), a Japanese developer of video games and middleware solutions for game production. Keywords is paying a total cash consideration of $1.5m for the business and all associated technology rights and trademarks from Silicon.

Based in Tokyo, YD's team of international machine learning engineers, big data engineers and data scientists, led by Dr África Periáñez, have developed a range of cutting edge self-learning, predictive analytic models drawing on AI and machine learning technologies that predict individual player behaviour and adapt themselves in response to changes that are made in the game. These models are used for determining the likelihood of players abandoning the game and their propensity to buy items in the game. By processing large quantities of data and delivering real time predictions, YD's technology can be used to reduce player attrition, maximise conversion, increase average spend, and materially impact the lifetime value of players all while increasing the appeal of the game for the individual users.

Along with the AI driven models, YD has a management framework solution to allow games companies to adjust key parameters, to record and view results and to monitor key performance metrics of their games in live operation.

Yokozuna Data's solutions have been developed over the past three years and are now ready for commercial roll out. YD has won numerous accolades for its technology including competitions staged by NC Soft and others and they have published numerous scientific, peer-reviewed articles. In joining Keywords at this stage, the business can leverage the worldwide reach of Keywords and its extensive client relationships. As part of the agreement, Silicon will collaborate with Keywords in introducing the technology to Japanese game developers and publishers, and it has a non-exclusive right to resell the YD solution into the non-games markets (such a healthcare), in exchange for a share of the associated revenues.


Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios, commented:
"We have been looking for opportunities to establish a foothold in the exciting area of video game analytics for a few years. This acquisition brings industry leading technology and capabilities to Keywords that we believe we can support, enhance and roll out to our clients thanks to the engineering, player research and video game specific data science skills we have within the business. While YD is pre- revenue, it is a rare asset and we expect the first clients to start implementing the software during 2018.

"As games continue to transition to a service model from a product model, the use of sophisticated analytics engines like this to automatically understand player behaviour and trigger real time decisions in-game will become increasingly valuable to our clients. The use of AI to constantly adapt the predictive models to changes that are made in the games, such as when new items, expansion packs and promotions are introduced, is critical to the future of the video games industry so we are delighted to have secured this leading-edge technology.

"We look forward to continuing the development of the YD solution set and bringing this capability to our clients around the world."

Half Year Trading Update
RNS
RNS Number : 6958W
Keywords Studios PLC
03 August 2018

3 August 2018



Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios" or "the Group")

Half year trading update

A strong first half performance delivered a 66% increase in adjusted PBT

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, is pleased to provide an update on trading for the six months ended 30 June 2018.

The Group has performed strongly during the first half, with preliminary unaudited revenues for the period expected to be up by 72% to €109.9m (H1 2017: €63.8m) and an anticipated 66% increase in adjusted PBT* to €15.9m (H1 2017: €9.6m). This was achieved despite the incorporation of the historically lower margin VMC business, as well as a marked weakening of the US dollar, in which approximately 60% of the Group's revenues are denominated, against the Euro with average exchange rates having declined 12% between the comparable periods.

The 11 acquisitions made during 2017 and the 7 acquisitions made since the beginning of 2018 are all performing in line with expectations. The Group's largest acquisition to date, VMC, completed on 30 October 2017 and has been well integrated with the rest of the Group. It is starting to benefit from being part of a larger group focused on similar services, with a number of its client relationships having been strengthened, while cost synergies are leading to improved operating margins.

The second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018 saw us invest substantially in expansion of the Group's facilities in Montreal, Dublin, London, Liverpool, Madrid, Katowice, New Delhi, Zhengzhou, Manila and Tokyo, which are now providing additional capacity to support the higher levels of activity we anticipate in the second half given the demand we are seeing from our customers.

Keywords has also continued to strengthen its management team with some changes to its senior management team including the hiring of a Chief Marketing Officer, and the appointments of an Engineering Service Line Director, Global Operations Director and a Chief Commercial Officer, as announced on 10 July 2018.

The Group has invested net cash of nearly €10.0m for the 5 acquisitions made in the first half of the year and we are actively reviewing a number of high quality acquisition opportunities, in line with our acquisition strategy. Significant headroom in our new €105m credit facility with Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank and HSBC (announced on 5 June 2018), combined with continuing strong cash generation and the judicious use of Keywords shares to part-fund acquisitions where appropriate, leaves the Group well placed to complete further selective acquisitions this year. At 30 June 2017, the Group had no net debt.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords, commented:

"Our progress so far this year has been very encouraging. We have made significant investments, most notably in enlarged facilities and senior and mid-level management, which are further supporting our organic growth in the second half and beyond. Despite the incorporation of the lower growth and margin VMC business, our largest acquisition to date, and a weaker US dollar, we have delivered a first half in line with our expectations while also strengthening the business for the future.

"With the benefits of a full six months contribution from first half acquisitions, a strengthening dollar, a healthy pipeline of activity and expanded capacity to deliver it, we anticipate a strong second half performance in line with current market expectations for the full year."


Keywords Studios will provide a further update on trading with its half year results which it expects to announce in mid-September.

*The Group reports adjusted PBT before acquisition and integration expenses, share option charges, amortisation of intangibles and foreign currency gains

Acquisition of Studio Gobo and Electric Square
RNS
RNS Number : 2246Y
Keywords Studios PLC
20 August 2018

20th August 2018


Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Acquisition of Studio Gobo and Electric Square
- Substantially Expanding Keywords' Engineering Service Line with its Video Game Development capabilities

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired Studio Gobo Ltd and Electric Square Ltd (together, "Gobo"), for a total consideration of up to £26 million from the founders and other members of the management team (the "Sellers").

Gobo provides game development services to video game developers and publishers around the world from its Studio Gobo and Electric Square studios based across three studio locations in Brighton and Hove, UK.

Founded in 2011 by game industry veterans, Gobo employs 170 software engineers, artists, animators, game designers, quality assurance testers and producers. Gobo works with game developers and publishers in a number of different operational models to deliver its services. These services include:

· Full game development in which Gobo will develop the game from concept to completion on behalf of the owner of the game franchise.
· Co-development in which a portion of the game's development is assigned to Gobo who's team work alongside the client's development team.
· Live operations in which Gobo develops new features and downloadable content packages to ensure the games they support continue to keep players excited and engaged.
· Porting services in which Gobo will adapt a game to run on a different platform (for example a mobile or Nintendo Switch version).

Over the years, Gobo has worked on top games franchises such as Disney Infinity, Ubisoft's For Honor, and Microsoft's newest racing game, Miami Street.

Gobo adds considerable expertise and scale to Keywords' new and growing video game development business. It significantly increases Keywords' access to the UK's talent pool of video games developers, growing our total UK game development team to 220, in combination with our existing 50-strong team at d3t, whilst also expanding our worldwide game development team, which includes Snowed In, Sperasoft, and GameSim, by over a third to 610 people.

Gobo's revenue has grown quickly from £6.2m for the year ended 30 September 2017 to an estimated £11.6m for the 12 months ending 31st July 2018. Underlying pro-forma EBITDA for the same 12 months is expected to be approximately £3.6m.

Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be earnings enhancing in the first year, Keywords is paying a total consideration of up to £26m. The initial consideration is £10.5m in cash and 254,529 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which will be issued on the anniversary of completion and will then be subject to orderly market provisions for a further 12 months. The remaining consideration of £11m is payable in a mix of cash and shares, or all in cash at the discretion of Keywords, subject to the achievement of a substantial increase in Gobo's EBITDA over the 12-month period following completion. All of the Sellers are remaining with the business under the continued direction of Tony Beckwith.


Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios, commented:
"We are delighted to welcome Studio Gobo and Electric Square to the Keywords family. By significantly enhancing our game development services in both scale and expertise, these studios together with recently acquired Snowed In, Sperasoft, d3t and GameSim help position Keywords as a go to game development partner and give us ever greater visibility of games in the pipeline, at the outset of their development.

"The acquisition further expands the number of the world's leading game companies who use our development services. As winner of GamesIndustry.biz's Best Places to Work 2017 award, its Brighton and Hove locations and strong culture is also a major draw for talent around the UK and beyond.

"We look forward to working closely with Gobo's highly talented team to build upon their strong industry reputation and relationships with some of the world's leading games developers and publishers."


Tony Beckwith, Chief Executive Officer of Gobo, commented:
"We are excited about joining the Keywords Studios family. As we look to build upon our strong foundations, Keywords leading position in the video games industry, its breadth of services and its geographical reach will provide us with a strong and broader platform from which to deliver our ambitious growth plans. We also look forward to working collaboratively with other members of the Group in offering wider capabilities to all our clients."

Broker Forecast - Berenberg issues a broker note on Keywords Studios
BFN
Berenberg today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Keywords Studios (LON:KWS) and raised its price target to 2150p (from 2060p).

Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Broker Forecasts data provided by www.sharesmagazine.co.uk

Half-year Report
RNS
RNS Number : 0470B
Keywords Studios PLC
18 September 2018

18 September 2018

Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")

Half year results for the six months to 30 June 2018

An excellent performance and a strengthened services platform

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today provides its half year results for the six months to 30 June 2018.

Financial overview:
· Revenue, including contribution from acquisitions, increased by 72% to €110.0m (H1 2017: €63.8m)
o On a constant currency basis, revenue would have been up by 84% to €117.5m
· 2% increase in like for like** revenue; 8.6% increase on a like for like constant currency basis
· Gross profit margin increased to 37.4% (H1 2017: 35.6%)
· Adjusted profit before tax* was up 67% to €16.0m (H1 2017: €9.6m)
· Adjusted earnings per share* were up 53% to 20.1c (H1 2017: 13.2c)
· Net cash of €0.1m (H1 2017: €1.1m; FY 2017: €11.1m) after €10.6m of net cash outlay on acquisitions
· 10% increase in interim dividend to 0.53p per share (H1 2017: 0.48p)

Operational overview:
o VMC has been successfully integrated with our margin improvement plan ahead of schedule
o Continued to invest in the development of the Group:
o Expansion of studios in response to demand including investing €3.8m in new or expanded facilities in Montreal, Dublin, London, Liverpool, Madrid, Katowice, New Delhi, Chengdu, Manila and Tokyo, providing a total of 660 additional workstations
o Acquisition of Maximal, adding further scale to our Audio capabilities in South American markets, in March
o Acquisition of Cord and Laced, which extended our Audio offering in to the provision of composed or licenced music for use in games and other media, in April
o Acquisition of Fire Without Smoke, which provides a suite of marketing services to game publishers and developers, in May
o Acquisition of Blindlight, which provides Hollywood based talent resources and services, in June
o Launch of Keywords Ventures, to invest in innovative technologies and services that can leverage Keywords' reach in the games market and that will benefit clients; first investment in automated app testing solution for GDPR compliance, AppSec Test, in June
o New revolving credit facility secured for up to €105m
o Further cross selling progression with 19% increase in clients using three or more services to 100 (H1 2017: 84)

Post period end, current trading and outlook:
· Further investment in operational capacity and Group infrastructure to support growth in future periods:
· Announced separately today:
o Acquisition of TrailerFarm, a Brighton, UK based creator of video game trailers for a total consideration of up to £2m
o. Hiring of a leading Hollywood based sound effects team of 7 people, SoundLab, bringing world-class audio design and production services for games, film and TV to our Audio service line
· Acquisition of Studio Gobo and Electric Square, both in Brighton, UK, enhancing our game development services in both scale and expertise, in August
· Acquisition of Tokyo, Japan based Yokozuna Data, developer of machine learning and AI technology bringing industry leading capabilities in video game analytics for live operations, in July
· Acquisition of Snowed In, in July adding strength to our Engineering service line and access to talent in Ottawa, Canada.
· Further strengthened the senior management team with the appointment of a Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Global Operations Director and Engineering Service Line Director, all newly created positions

Outlook
· Selectively reviewing a strong acquisition pipeline
· Trading in the second half has been good and we expect to meet market expectations for the full year before the positive impact of any additional acquisitions

* before acquisition and integration expenses of €2m (H1 2017: €0.5m), share option charges of €0.8m (H1 2017: €0.4m), amortisation of intangibles of €3.1m (H1 2017: €1.2m) and foreign currency gain/(loss) of €0.8m (H1 2017: (€1.96m))
** calculated on the basis that the H1 2017 comparative includes all of the 2017 and 2018 acquisitions as if they had been owned for the same period in 2017 as they have been in 2018.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:

"In a period in which the gaming phenomenon, Fortnite, had a significant impact on the games market and in which the US dollar which represented 54% of our revenues declined by 12% compared to the same period in 2017, we have none the less delivered yet another strong set of results for the first six months of 2018 as we continue to deepen and broaden the business for the future.

"Our continued organic investment and acquisitions have extended our geographical reach, added further scale to our existing service lines, and broadened the range of capabilities we can offer our clients to include co-development, analytics, music, marketing services and sound effects.

"We are particularly pleased with our performance in respect of acquisitions and their subsequent integration. Our largest acquisition to date, VMC, which was absorbed into the Group with a track record of reducing revenues and an operating margin of 9.1% in October 2017, has been fully integrated and the resulting synergies are already significantly enhancing operating margins as can be seen by the overall group profit margin of 14.5%. We are confident of being able to return it to revenue growth in the near to medium term.

"The games market is starting to focus on the prospect of games being streamed and played live across all connected devices. Advances in technology and increases in internet bandwidth including the forthcoming 5G mobile networks and the resultant reduction in latency of communications could enable streaming of games for the first time which we believe will drive record demand for gaming content. We are excited by the prospect of assisting the industry in creating and repurposing content for this new medium over the coming years and Keywords is already working on interactive streaming content and porting games to upcoming streaming platforms.

"Our focus on organic and acquisition led growth is being maintained and we continue to invest in additional talent and better facilities as well as in acquisitions of synergistic businesses as we build our global games services platform and lead the consolidation of a highly-fragmented market."

A presentation of the half year results will be made to analysts later this morning at MHP's offices. There will also be a live, listen only webcast of the presentation and a recording will be made available via www.keywordsstudios.com. To register for access, please contact Charles Hirst at MHP Communications on +44 20 3128 8193 or email keywords@mhpc.com.

Acquisition
RNS
RNS Number : 0409B
Keywords Studios PLC
18 September 2018

18 September 2018

Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")

Leading sound production team, known as Sound Lab, joins Keywords Studios in Los Angeles

and

Acquisition of The TrailerFarm Ltd ("TrailerFarm") in Brighton to complement the Group's marketing services and games trailer production capability


Keywords Studios, the international services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that renowned Hollywood sound designer, Scott Gershin and his Sound Lab team in Burbank, California, have joined Keywords Studios from Technicolor. Sound Lab at Keywords is a leader in the video game and immersive entertainment market (VR / AR) and provides sound services for movies and streaming (over the top - OTT content). In support of the Sound Lab team joining The Group, Keywords is investing in new, state of the art production equipment to fit out a sound design studio in Burbank already occupied by Sound Lab.

With more than 30 years' experience in sound design, Scott Gershin and his team have been credited on an extensive list of bestselling video games including the likes of Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil, Gears of War, Fable and Epic Mickey, and worked on projects for Riot, Capcom, Activision, Infinity Ward, Amazon and a host of others.

At Keywords, Gershin will also be continuing his work in the film and broadcast industry having worked on such titles as Nightcrawler, Pacific Rim, American Beauty, Hellboy 2, Chronicles of Riddick, Team America, Blade II, The Strain, Shrek and The Book of Life. Joining Keywords alongside Gershin is a team of five passionate audio professionals, sound designers, mixers, musicians and creative managers.

Separately, Keywords is also announcing the acquisition of The TrailerFarm Ltd. Based in Brighton, UK, TrailerFarm produces trailers for the marketing and support of video games, and will complement Keywords' recently acquired Fire Without Smoke marketing services business in producing high impact, cost-effective trailers for a broad range of games.

Founded in 2011 by brothers Tony and Dan Porter, TrailerFarm's team of 12 creative directors, video game artists, project managers and motion graphic designers produce trailers for both mobile and console/PC games for use in game launches and ongoing promotional events.

In the year ending 30 June 2018, TrailerFarm posted revenues of £1.0m and adjusted EBITDA of £165k. Under the terms of the acquisition, Keywords is paying a total consideration of up to £2m. The initial consideration of £1.0m is being satisfied by the payment of £790k in cash and 11,070 new ordinary shares in Keywords, which are to be issued to the sellers on the first anniversary of the acquisition. The remaining consideration of up to £1m is payable in cash, subject to the increase in profit before tax of TrailerFarm over the 12 month period post acquisition.

Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords Studios commented:

"I'm delighted to welcome Scott and his team into the Keywords family. As games become ever more immersive, sound design quality is getting ever closer to that of movies. Our new Sound Lab studio, created around Scott and his team, will be integrated within the Keywords Audio Services Line and will benefit accordingly from our global network of studios and our extensive video game client base around the world.

"Our presence in audio services continues to grow. In Los Angeles, with our long-established voice-over studio in Burbank, the recently acquired Blindlight LLC, which focuses on Hollywood voice-over production and writing services, and our specialist music services through recent Keywords joiners, Cord and Laced. The sound design services we are adding with this investment help round out the full suite of audio services we are now able to offer to clients in interactive and linear media.

"Trailers are the primary marketing asset for video games and Keywords' ability to produce trailers across the spectrum from cost effective small productions to the very high end trailers for AAA games positions us well in this interesting segment of the games services market. Bringing together art, animation, sound effect, music and voiced audio, trailers can further act as a showcase for our range of services and creative abilities."

Ends

8 Nov
Berenberg
N/A
Buy