Press release
Lesquin, 21 January 2019, 18:00

Sales in Q3 2018/19 stable at  80.3 M€

·       Gaming thriving further with digital sales

·       Other businesses improving

Outlook : confirmation of targets

XX
    ⁽¹⁾Non audited data

A favourable trend in 3^rd quarter

For the 3rd quarter of its FY 2018/19 (from October to December 2018), Bigben succeeded in maintaining stable sales despite the adverse economic environment for consumption in France. This performance was made possible by the sustained strength of the Gaming business and the improvement in the other business segments compared to previous quarters.

GAMING
The Gaming business was borne by the growth of digital sales of gaming software and posted 31.6 M€ sales in Q3 2018/19, an increase of 14.9% when compared to Q3 2017/18.

• Games: The segment recorded 12.4 M€ sales in Q3 2018/19, up 67.6%. In the absence of major game releases in the quarter, growth mainly resulted from the acceleration of digital sales that trebled to reach 8.1 M€ over the period, representing 65.0% of the "games" segment. In addition, Bigben benefited from the great success of the Call of Cthulhu ® game developed by its studio Cyanide on behalf of Focus Home.
   
• Accessories: Further to the trend of the first half, the Accessories segment of the Gaming business was slightly down 4.6% to 19.2 M€. Sales of the REVOLUTION Pro Controller 2 for PS4^TM were particularly robust enabling to offset the high comparison basis resulting from strong sales of the NACON^TM Compact controller for PS4^TM during the same period of last year.

             
MOBILE
The Mobile business posted a slight decrease (4.8%) of sales to 34.5 M€ in Q3 2018/19. The success of Force Glass ® was confirmed with more than 3.5 million units sold since its launch. The Force ® range also progressed by 16.4% especially with the successful launch of Force Power ® (full range of high performance chargers and cables for smartphones).

AUDIO
In a market that remained lacklustre, quarterly sales declined by 13.0% over the period showing a sharp slowdown in the erosion of the activity thanks to the success of the Lumin'Us range during the Xmas period.

Outlook 

GAMING
The favourable trend of the Gaming business is set to continue in the 4th quarter over the whole segment especially with the release in Publishing of Spike Volleyball and with the launch of new products in Accessories including the new Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller for PS4^TM with its wired/non-wired option being eagerly anticipated by gamers.

MOBILE                                                         
The Group will also benefit in the 4^th quarter from the first spin-offs of the partnership with Orange Spain which highlights the acceleration of the international deployment of the Mobile business, from the launch of the next Samsung premium smartphones marking the tenth anniversary of the Galaxy S format, as well as from the ongoing sales of accessories from its Force ® range.

AUDIO
The Audio business is expected to remain sluggish in the last quarter pending its rebound with the launch of numerous connected devices including voice control in 2019. In addition, the announced deployment of DAB technology in 2019-2020 should open many opportunities in this segment.

The level of activity since the beginning of the financial year allows the Group to confirm its annual targets with sales ranging between 240 M€ and 255 M€ and a current operating margin strongly increasing between 8.7% and 9.0%.

In addition, the Group is pursuing its strategic developments in its target markets to achieve the goals set in its "BIGBEN 2022" plan including 350 M€ sales for the 2021/22 financial year and a Current Operating Margin of 12%.

Upcoming publication:

Annual sales 2018 / 2019:       Monday 23 April 2019
Press release after close of the stock market