SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO.\, LTD. Announces Notice of Revisions of Consolidated Financial Forecasts and Year-end Dividend

SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. Announces Notice of Revisions of Consolidated Financial Forecasts and Year-end Dividend

News provided by

SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD.

May 11, 2020, 03:40 ET

TOKYO, May 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. (the "Company") had released consolidated financial forecasts and a projected year-end dividend for the fiscal year through March 31, 2020 (April 1, 2019 - March 31, 2020) on May 13, 2019, but now announces the following revisions made to reflect recent earnings trends.

1.  Revisions to Consolidated Financial Forecasts for the Fiscal Year through March 31, 2020 (April 1, 2019 through March 31, 2020)

(Millions of yen, percentage change, and per share data)



Net sales

Operating

Income

Ordinary
Income

Profit attributable to
owners of parent

Earnings

per share

Previous forecasts

(A)

270,000

24,000

24,000

16,800

140.97

Revised forecasts

(B)

260,500

32,700

32,000

21,300

179.02

Change

(B-A)

(9,500)

8,700

8,000

4,500


Percentage change

(%)

(3.5)

36.3

33.3

26.8


[Reference] Results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019

271,276

24,635

28,415

19,373

162.57

2.  Reasons for the Revisions

The Company now expects lower net sales than previously anticipated under its consolidated financial forecasts for the fiscal year through March 31, 2020, primarily due to the postponement of the release of the major HD game title "FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE" to April 2020. By contrast, despite booking valuation losses related to its content production account, the Company now expects higher operating income, ordinary income, and profit attributable to owners of parent than previously anticipated under its forecasts because of contribution profit from expansion pack sales and subscriber growth for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game "FINAL FANTASY XIV" in its MMO sub-segment, a strong performance from "DRAGON QUEST WALK" in the Games for Smart Devices/PC Browsers sub-segment, and sales growth in digital formats such as the "MANGA UP!" comic app and e-books in the Publication segment.

*The above forecasts are based on information available at the time of this document's release and are subject to various uncertainties. As such, actual performance may differ from these forecasts.

3.Revision of Projected Dividend Per Share for the Fiscal Year through March 31, 2020


Interim

Year-end

Annual

Previous Forecasts

¥10.00

¥33.00

¥43.00

Revised Forecasts

¥10.00

¥44.00

¥54.00

Dividends for the FY

through March 31, 2019

¥10.00

¥37.00

¥47.00

4.  Reasons for the Revision

The Group recognizes the return of profits to shareholders as one of its most important management tasks and has set a consolidated payout ratio target of approximately 30% to guide its shareholder return policy for the fiscal year through March 31, 2020. Given the aforementioned revisions to its consolidated financial forecasts, the Company revises its projected year-end dividend for the fiscal year to 44 yen per share, which would make for an annual dividend per share of 54 yen.   

 

Company:

SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD.


(Code: 9684, Tokyo Stock Exchange)

Representative:

Yosuke Matsuda, President and Representative Director

Contact:

Kazuharu Watanabe, Chief Financial Officer


Tel. (03) 5292-8000

SOURCE SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD.