(Alliance News) - Video game developer Sumo Group PLC said Thursday it swung to a profit in the first half of 2019 on steady revenue growth in the period.
Sumo also announced the promotion of Non-Executive Director Ian Livingstone as chair with immediate effect. He will be replacing Ken Beaty, who is stepping down from the role and the company after five years since 2014.
Livingstone has been part of Sumo Group for four years since 2015, and his most recent executive role was as life president of video game developer Eidos Interactive from 2009 to 2013.
For the six months to the end of June, Sumo's pretax profit was GBP1.2 million, compared to a loss of GBP2.0 million the year before.
The group's profit performance was helped by lower operating expenses at GBP7.9 million from GBP10.5 million, mainly resulting from a drop in amortisation costs to GBP559,000 from GBP5.0 million the prior year.
On an adjusted basis, pretax profit rose to GBP4.5 million from GBP4.3 million the year before.
Revenue grew by 6.1% to GBP20.8 million from GBP19.6 million, on a continued rise from development fees from the video game industry.
Looking ahead, Sumo said it is on-track to meet consensus market forecasts for 2019, and for 2020, more than 40% of forecast development fee revenue has been contracted or near-contracted.
"The first half of 2019 has been another successful six months for Sumo group. We have grown the business and delivered financial results in line with our expectations. Our market remains buoyant and we are seeing many exciting opportunities," said Chief Executive Officer Carl Cavers.
Shares in Sumo Group were down 3.6% at 159.01 pence on Thursday.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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