Keywords Studios PLC Acquisition of Sunny Side Up and Trading Update (2005L)
December 21 2018 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMKWS
RNS Number : 2005L
Keywords Studios PLC
21 December 2018
21 December 2018
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
Acquisition of Sunny Side Up and Trading Update
Further Strengthening the Group's Marketing Services
capabilities
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider
to the global video games industry, today announces that it has
entered into an agreement to acquire Sunny Side Up Creative Inc
("Sunny Side Up") from its founder, Thomas Giroux (the "Seller").
The acquisition is expected to complete, subject to certain
conditions being fulfilled, no later than 4 January 2019.
Based in Quebec City, Canada, Sunny Side Up produces high
quality marketing assets for game publishers and developers
including game trailers, key art assets and motion graphic
production. The acquisition will complement and build on Keywords'
game trailer and marketing services offering provided by Fire
Without Smoke, The TrailerFarm and its other Art Services
studios.
Established in 2012, Sunny Side Up continues to grow rapidly and
works with many games developers and publishers including Ubisoft,
EA and Eidos.
The company generated adjusted EBITDA of CAD1.2m in the year to
30 September 2018. The total consideration for the acquisition is
CAD5.9m, of which CAD4.75m is being paid in cash on completion and
the rest through the issue of 60,179 new ordinary shares in
Keywords. The consideration shares will be issued to the Seller 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:
"We are delighted to welcome Thomas and the talented Sunny Side
Up team to the Keywords family. Following our acquisitions of Fire
Without Smoke and The TrailerFarm, Sunny Side Up's high quality
game trailers, technical expertise and marketing service experience
further extends the Group's geographic, client reach and scale in
this relatively new and exciting area for Keywords.
"As part of the Group, Sunny Side Up will be able to leverage
our well established presence in Montreal and Quebec City to
support its continued growth.
"We will as usual provide a fuller trading update by the end of
January but, as we approach our year end, we expect adjusted profit
before tax to be within the range of analyst forecasts at around
EUR37m on revenues in the region of EUR250m (around EUR258m on a
constant currency basis), which would represent increases of 61%
and 65% on the prior year respectively."
For further information, please contact:
Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)
Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer
David Broderick, Chief Financial Officer
Giacomo Duranti, Chief Operating 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) 020 3128 8100
Katie Hunt / Ollie Hoare 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 over 50 facilities in 20 countries strategically located in
Asia, the Americas and Europe, it provides integrated art creation,
software engineering, testing, localisation, audio and customer
care services across more than 50 languages and 16 games platforms
to a blue-chip client base of approximately 650 clients across the
globe. 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, Epic Games and
Ubisoft. Recent titles worked on include Uncharted 4: A Thief's
End, Call of Duty: WWII, Mortal Combat X, Assassin's Creed Origins,
Battlefield 1, League of Legends, Fortnite, Clash Royale and
Rainbow Six Siege. Keywords Studios is listed on AIM, the London
Stock Exchange regulated market (KWS.L).
About Sunny Side Up (www.sunnysup.com)
Sunny Side Up is an award-winning creative agency and
full-service trailer production studio formed by veterans from the
video game industry. Founded in 2012 by Thomas Giroux in Quebec
City, it worked on trailers and marketing content for games such as
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Rainbow Six Siege, EA's The
Sims 4: Get Famous and Eidos' Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
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END
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