PRESS RELEASE: BIGBEN: FOURTH-QUARTER 2023/24 SALES UP 6.6% TO €69.7 MILLION

                                                Press release

Lesquin, 29 April 2024, 6:00pm CET

FOURTH-QUARTER 2023/24 SALES
UP 6.6% TO €69.7 MILLION

2023/24 SALES (non-IFRS) UP 4% TO €294.9 MILLION

STRONG GROWTH IN PROFITABILITY OVER THE FULL YEAR

BIGBEN INTERACTIVE (ISIN FR0000074072) has today reported its consolidated sales for its 2023/24 financial year (period from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024).

Fourth-quarter sales up 6.6% to €69.7 million

NACON Gaming generated fourth-quarter 2023/24 sales of €41.0 million, up 9.8%.

GAMING: Performance was positive in the fourth quarter, with sales rising 7.9% to €26.4 million despite a high base for comparison (strong back-catalogue activity in Q4 2022/23 and release of Blood Bowl^® 3, Chef Life and Transport Fever 2 Console Edition).

Catalogue sales (new games) rose 16.3% to €15.4 million over the period. Five games were released in the fourth quarter of 2023/24 and performed well:

• War Hospital and New Cycle in January,
• Garden Life and Welcome to Paradize in February,
• Taxi Life in March.
  
  

Over the full year, NACON had a busy release schedule, launching 19 games, including some top sellers such as Robocop: Rogue City ^TM, which was a big hit, Cricket 24: Official Game of The Ashes ^TM, Taxi Life, Tour de France and Welcome to Paradize.

An impressive line-up of launches is also planned for 2024/25, with around 15 games scheduled for release, including Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown^TM, Crown Wars: The Black Prince, Ravenswatch, which has sold more than 400,000 early-access copies on PC and Greedfall II: The Dying World and Terminator: Survivors^TM, which will be given an early access release.

Back-catalogue sales (games released in previous years) held up well at €11.0 million. In 2024/25, Back-catalogue sales will get a boost from the various games released in the 2023/24 financial year, paving the way for strong growth.

ACCESSORIES: Over the quarter, Accessories sales rose 13.1% to €13.8 million. The new products released in October, including the RIG 600 PRO gaming headset and the REVOLUTION 5 PRO controller, have gone from strength to strength. The RIG 600 PRO has sold very well, especially in the US. These trends are expected to continue over the next few months with the increase in the installed base of consoles.

Bigben – Audio-Video/Telco generated fourth-quarter sales of €28.8 million, up 2.4%.

MOBILE ACCESSORIES: In a smartphone market that continues to contract significantly, the mobile accessories business performed well, with sales rising 8.0% to €23.3 million. The Force brand and the stellar performance of Force Play 2 earbuds, chosen as the "Product of the Year 2024”, drove this growth, enabling BIGBEN to outperform the market by a significant margin. New "Force” ranges are being lined up and will underpin the development of the Mobile Accessories business over the coming months.

AUDIO-VIDEO: This business generated sales of €5.4 million in the quarter, compared with €6.3 million in the same period of the previous year. Audio sales came to €2.7 million. The introduction of the Cosy, Bigben Party and Kids ranges in France and the rest of Europe continued to make good progress, pointing to bright times ahead.
The Video business showed resilience, with sales stable at €2.7 million compared with the previous year.

Further strong growth in operating income expected over the full year

Given the performance over the full year, the Group has generated strong growth in its operating income.

The targets and development strategy for the 2024/25 financial year will be presented when the full-year 2023/24 results are published on 3 June.

Next event:

FY 2023/24 results press release to be published on 3 June 2024 (after the market close)

FY 2023/24 results presentation meeting at 11:30am on 4 June 2024

Attachment

• CP_BBI_CAT4 23-24 English Diffusion