Keywords Studios sees revenues and earnings increase on the back of acquisitions

Fall Guys a Keywords client game

Ellie Donnelly Twitter Email

March 24 2021 08:02 AM

Irish company Keywords Studios, a service provider to the video game industry, has reported an increase in revenue and earnings for last year.

Group revenue was up 14pc to €373.5m, according to its annual results.

Organic revenue increased 11.7pc despite operational and content flow constraints in some service lines, particularly testing, audio and localisation.

Keywords reported earnings of €74.2m, up 28.8pc on the prior year.

Last year the company completed seven acquisitions with a total maximum consideration of up to €97.2m.

The company had net cash of €103m at the end of the year, a swing on the net debt of €18m at the end of 2019.

Jon Hauck, joint interim CEO of Keywords Studios, said the company achieved a “strong performance” in a year that was heavily impacted by Covid-19.

“As we enter 2021, we are very confident in the group’s opportunity for growth due to the continued trend towards outsourcing and an increased focus on content creation in a growing video games market,” Mr Hauck said.

“This combined with our ability to increase our market share and to selectively acquire high quality businesses will allow us to further cement our position as the ‘go to’ provider of technical and creative services to a global client base,” he added.

The company said it has experienced a good start to this year, with strong demand across its service lines following newly launched PlayStation 5 and Xbox X|S Series consoles.

Looking forward, Keywords said it is “well-funded to deliver on our value accretive acquisition strategy and continue to actively engage with selected targets from a healthy pipeline of opportunities.”

Keywords, established in 1998, now has 65 facilities in 22 countries.

Earlier this year the company purchased an 85pc share in Tantalus in Australia, for total maximum consideration of up to $46.8m.