REMINDER: Our focusIR Investor Webinar takes place TONIGHT with guest speakers from WS Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.

Less Ads, More Data, More Tools Register for FREE

Pin to quick picksKeywords Studios Plc Regulatory News (KWS)

Share Price Information for Keywords Studios Plc (KWS)

London Stock Exchange
Share Price is delayed by 15 minutes
Get Live Data
Share Price: 1,288.00
Bid: 1,286.00
Ask: 1,291.00
Change: 8.00 (0.63%)
Spread: 5.00 (0.389%)
Open: 1,260.00
High: 1,294.00
Low: 1,260.00
Prev. Close: 1,280.00
KWS Live PriceLast checked at -

Watchlists are a member only feature

Login to your account

Alerts are a premium feature

Login to your account

Acquisition

4 Aug 2017 07:00

RNS Number : 0934N
Keywords Studios PLC
04 August 2017
 

4 August 2017

 

 

 

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

 

Acquisitions position Keywords Studios as the clear leader of the important French game localisation and voice-over recording market

 

Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider to the global video games industry, today announces the acquisitions of La Marque Rose SARL, Asrec SAS and the subsidiary companies of holding company, Dune Media SAS, trading as Dune Sound and Around the Word, which are all based in Paris and provide audio recording and localisation services to the video games industry internationally.

 

The acquisitions are in line with our strategy of consolidating our leading position in the highly fragmented video games services industry and generating synergies through scale in certain services and geographies. These acquisitions will allow us to consolidate the leading providers of audio and localisation services in French which, together with German, remain the most important localised languages for games.

 

Our intention is to integrate La Marque Rose, Dune Sound, Around the Word and Asrec with our existing recording studio in Paris (acquired as part of the Synthesis acquisition in April 2016). The scale of the combined operation will support an investment of around €1m in new audio recording studios and offices that will accommodate all 50 employees in a single location and provide a true destination for French voice-over recording.

 

All but one of the six founders and shareholders will remain in the businesses with Michel Golgevit, founder of Dune being appointed as CEO of the combined companies.

La Marque Rose was founded in 1989 and has a well-earned reputation for setting the gold standard in French audio for games. Established in 1998, Dune Sound (audio recording) and Around the Word (game localisation), which also has a small presence in Germany and in Canada, are together the largest providers of French language video game localisation. Asrec started in 2010 and has been successfully providing Keywords, Synthesis and Binari Sonori with French audio recording for the past four years in a highly flexible and efficient manner.

 

The businesses being acquired have combined annual revenues of €9.0m and profit before tax of €0.9m. The total aggregate consideration payable is €6.6m on day one and up to a further €1.0m over the two years to 31 December 2019, based on meeting performance targets for the combined businesses. Of the total aggregate consideration of up to €7.6m, up to €6.7m is being satisfied in cash, and the remainder through the issue of 75,796 new ordinary shares in Keywords. Of this total, 9,534 new shares will be issued on day one (and are subject to a 12 month hard lock-in) and the balance will be issued on the first anniversary of completion.

 

 

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the admission of 9,534 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 10 August 2017. The Company's total issued share capital following admission will consist of 55,797,528 ordinary shares of one pence each with one voting right per share. The above figure of 55,797,528 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, European Managing Director of Keywords Studios, commented:

"These acquisitions are an important milestone in the development of our Localisation and Audio Services business lines in Europe. While the trend for game developers and publishers to increasingly source all languages from a single provider is clear, some clients continue to want to transact separately for individual languages. This is still most prevalent for those regarded as pillar languages of which French is probably still the most important. The combination of La Marque Rose, Dune Sound, Around the Word and Asrec with our existing Keywords studio, gives us a leading share of this games production work.

"The consolidation of these businesses gives us the combined scale to support investment in new, state of the art recording facilities which will ensure that we can service the growing demand for French audio and localisation services, with the high level of quality our customers expect, for many years to come.

"We look forward to welcoming the teams at La Marque Rose, Dune Sound, Around the Word and Asrec into the Keywords family. We see this as the beginning of the next chapter in the market for French audio production, localisation and related media. Having such talented audio and localisation professionals pooling their expertise for the benefits of so many of the world's leading video games is exciting to see."

For further information, please contact:

 

Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)

Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer

David Broderick, Chief Financial Officer

+353 190 22 730

 

Numis (Financial Adviser)

Stuart Skinner / Kevin Cruickshank (Nominated Adviser)

James Black / Tom Ballard (Corporate Broker)

 

020 7260 1000

 

MHP Communications (Financial PR)

Katie Hunt / Ollie Hoare / Nessyah Hart

 

 

020 3128 8156

keywords@mhpc.com

 

 

 

About Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)

 

Keywords Studios is an international technical services provider to the global video games industry. Established in 1998, and now with facilities in Dublin, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal, Quebec City, Portland, Orlando, Raleigh, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Pune, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Manila, Yogyakarta, Hamburg, Paris and London, it provides integrated art creation, software engineering, testing, localisation, audio and customer care services across 50 languages and 14 games platforms to a blue-chip client base in more than 15 countries. It has a strong market position, providing services to 23 of the top 25 most prominent games companies, including Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Konami, Riot Games, Sony, Square Enix, Supercell, TakeTwo, and Ubisoft. Recent titles worked on include Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Mortal Combat X, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Battlefield 1, Overwatch, World of Warcraft: Legion, Hearthstone, Clash Royale, and Mobile Strike. Keywords Studios is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (KWS.L). 

 

 

 

 

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
END
 
 
ACQUOVURBAAWRUR
Date   Source Headline
13th May 20247:00 amRNSBlock listing return
9th May 20242:36 pmRNSIssue of Shares
8th May 20247:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
1st May 20247:00 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
29th Apr 20242:37 pmRNSBlock Admission
19th Apr 20243:59 pmRNSPublication of Annual Report and Accounts
10th Apr 20247:46 amRNSIssue of Shares
2nd Apr 20247:00 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
22nd Mar 20242:15 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company
14th Mar 20247:00 amRNSIssue of Shares
13th Mar 20247:00 amRNSFinal Results
6th Mar 20243:51 pmRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
1st Mar 20247:00 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
6th Feb 20247:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
1st Feb 20247:00 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
25th Jan 20247:00 amRNSFull Year Trading Update
9th Jan 20247:00 amRNSAppointment of Joint Corporate Broker
2nd Jan 20244:14 pmRNSTotal Voting Rights
2nd Jan 20249:45 amRNSIssue of Shares
18th Dec 20237:00 amRNSAcquisition
6th Dec 20234:26 pmRNSIssue of Shares
1st Dec 20237:00 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
16th Nov 20239:37 amRNSIssue of Shares
13th Nov 20237:00 amRNSBlock listing return
8th Nov 20237:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
1st Nov 20235:11 pmRNSTotal Voting Rights
26th Oct 20231:57 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company
24th Oct 20232:54 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company
18th Oct 20237:00 amRNSDirector Share Purchase
2nd Oct 20231:34 pmRNSTotal Voting Rights
26th Sep 20233:35 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company
20th Sep 20232:48 pmRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
19th Sep 20234:35 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company
19th Sep 20234:30 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company
14th Sep 202310:21 amRNSHolding(s) in Company
12th Sep 20237:00 amRNSInterim Results
5th Sep 20235:26 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company
1st Sep 20237:00 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
11th Aug 202312:42 pmRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
4th Aug 20239:00 amRNSDirector/PDMR Shareholding
1st Aug 20233:12 pmRNSDirector Share Purchase
1st Aug 20239:57 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
1st Aug 20237:00 amRNSH1 Trading Update
28th Jul 20237:37 amRNSIssue of Shares
25th Jul 202310:42 amRNSHolding(s) in Company
21st Jul 20237:00 amRNSNew Revolving Credit Facility of $400 million
3rd Jul 202311:26 amRNSTotal Voting Rights
3rd Jul 202310:25 amRNSHolding(s) in Company
21st Jun 20237:00 amRNSAppointment of Chief Financial Officer
19th Jun 20232:59 pmRNSHolding(s) in Company

Due to London Stock Exchange licensing terms, we stipulate that you must be a private investor. We apologise for the inconvenience.

To access our Live RNS you must confirm you are a private investor by using the button below.

Login to your account

Don't have an account? Click here to register.

Quickpicks are a member only feature

Login to your account

Don't have an account? Click here to register.