IGT achieves “important milestones” as full-year finances rise

recorded strong overall progress in its full-year results for 2016, posting year-on-year growth of 10% to a total of $5.2bn.

Operating income also grew significantly across the same 12 month period to $600m, a 22% increase on the figure of $540m recorded in 2015.

The industry supplier also reported a rise in adjusted EBITDA of 9%, growing to $1.76bn from $1.61bn, while adjusted income also grew by 12% to $1.2bn.

The solid results came in spite of ongoing problems with IGT’s social casino offering, DoubleDown, which contributed to decreased North America gaming service revenue of $230m in Q4.

Marco Sala, CEO of IGT, noted that IGT had “reached many important milestones in 2016.”

He continued: “We reinforced our number one position in lottery globally, achieving robust same-store revenue growth and securing valuable, multi-year contracts.

“We also made good progress with our gaming turnaround, developing compelling new titles and hardware, in addition to expanding our international presence.

“We operate in growing global market segments and IGT has a long history of investing in innovation to create shareholder value.”

Alberto Fornaro, group CFO, commented: “We achieved our financial goals for 2016 and ended the year in strong financial condition.

"Disciplined capital management enabled us to reduce our debt and improve our leverage profile despite the large upfront investment in the Italy Lotto.

“We expect 2017 to evolve as a year of two halves, with difficult comparisons in the first part of the year easing as we reach the second half."