NEWS
24 July 2019
Kindred’s share price drops 20% following H1 financial report
By Matthew Enderby

Despite the revenue rise, EBITDA dropped 32% to £61.1m, as profit before tax also faced significant decline, down 48% to £32.4m.

Kindred pointed to a tough comparative period as an explanation of its declining EBITDA, highlighting the 2018 Fifa World Cup and Swedish re-regulation.

The operator’s share price fell 20% to SEK 66.50 ($7.03) when markets opened following the publication of its H1 report.

This marks the lowest point of the operator’s share price in the last six months.

For the second quarter of the year, Kindred reported gross revenue of £226.2m, rising 3% year-on-year.

EBITDA dropped 27% to £30.5m in Q2, while profit before tax totalled £14.7m, down 49%.

Kindred also saw its number of active customers fall 5% during Q2 to 1,478,437.

Henrik Tjärnström, Kindred Group CEO, said: "Of the group’s gross revenue, 59% came from locally licensed markets which represented 41% growth compared to the same quarter last year (a growth of 19% excluding Sweden).

"This focus on growth in locally licensed markets is very much part of our strategy and, as expected, has resulted in margin pressure from higher betting duties."