Zeal revenues slump 16% but stays on track for full year

Business News

ZEAL Network SE performed well in the first nine months of 2019 despite the organisational changes resulting from the takeover of Lotto24 AG and the comparatively weak jackpot development.

Billings of the ZEAL Group – including Lotto24 AG, which has been fully consolidated since 14 May 2019 – rose by 57% to EUR 332.6 million in the first nine months of 2019 (2018: EUR 212.4 million, +3% on a like-for-like basis). However, due to the high jackpot win of EUR 26.3 million in August 2019, revenue of EUR 93.2 million (2018: EUR 111.2 million) and total operating performance (TOP) of EUR 101.2 million (2018: EUR 114.1 million) ended up below the respective prior-year figures down 16%.

As part of the business model change implemented on 15 October 2019, which returned the Tipp24 secondary lottery back to the German brokerage business, fluctuations in revenue and other operating income due to jackpot-related winning pay-outs are no longer expected in the future.

Because of the transfer of our registered office back to Germany, we will no longer pay interim dividends, in accordance with German practice. Accordingly, no dividend will be paid in December 2019. We will publish a proposal on the appropriation of profits by the management board and a new dividend policy in our 2019 financial statements in March 2020 at the latest.

“We kept what we promised: We defined the new organisational structure, reduced the number of employees as planned, implemented the business model change, stopped the secondary lottery business and relocated the company headquarters back to Germany. The implementation of cost synergies is also proceeding according to plan,” says Jonas Mattsson, CFO of ZEAL Network SE. “We are confident and look forward to continuing our recent success story with our future focus on the sustainable, continuously growing and socially valuable German lottery brokerage business”.

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