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

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