TIDMKWS
RNS Number : 4012P
Keywords Studios PLC
17 November 2016
17 November 2016
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords", "the Group")
Acquisition of Enzyme Testing Labs
- Strengthening the Group's testing capabilities
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider
to the global video games industry, today announces that it has
acquired Global Video-Games Services Inc. ("GVGS") together with
its subsidiary companies including its principal trading entity,
Enzyme Testing Labs Inc. ("Enzyme Testing Labs") (together
"Enzyme") from its founders, Yan Cyr and Emmanuel Viau and Fonds
d'Investissement de la Culture et des Communications (FICC) (the
"Sellers").
Under the terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be
earnings enhancing, Keywords Studios is paying the sellers and
settling the financing obligations of FICC to a total of CAD$5.4m.
This is being satisfied by the payment of CAD$4.9m in cash to the
Sellers and CAD$0.5m to FICC in repayment of loans advanced to
GVGS. This will be funded from the Group's existing cash
resources.
Founded in 2002, Enzyme is one of the most recognised technical
services brands in the video games industry. The consolidated,
audited accounts for the year to 31 December 2015 show revenue of
CAD$11.5m and profit before interest and tax of CAD$1.3m. Net
assets at closing after adjusting for the loans being repaid are
estimated to be CAD$2.3m.
Based in Montreal and St-Jérôme (60 km from Montreal) and with
an office in Kawasaki near Tokyo, Enzyme's strengths are in
Functional and Localisation Testing of video games for leading game
publishers and developers. In addition, it provides Localisation
Services and Focus Group Testing; the latter fitting well with
recently acquired Player Research. Combining Enzyme with Keywords
will significantly increase Keywords' Functional Testing capacity
(which accounted for 8% of Group revenue in the first half of 2016)
and provide significant operational synergies within the Group. The
business will be integrated into Keywords during the course of 2017
and we anticipate the resulting synergies will deliver significant
margin improvement.
Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented:
"The acquisition of Enzyme brings together two of the leading
video games testing providers, reinforcing Keywords' position as
the market leader in the field, with testing operations in
Montreal, St-Jérôme, Seattle, Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Milan
and Dublin.
"The acquisition will not only generate considerable cost
synergies but it will provide greater scale, flexibility and
breadth of services for our combined interactive media clients
globally.
"We warmly welcome Enzyme's highly talented and passionate
employees to the fast growing Keywords Studios family as we work
together to deliver the highest quality, cost effective services to
our clients around the world."
For further information, please contact:
Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)
Andrew Day, Chief Executive
Officer
Giacomo Duranti, Chief Operating
Officer
David Broderick, Chief Financial
Officer +353 190 22 730
Numis (Financial Adviser)
Stuart Skinner / Kevin Cruickshank
(Nominated Adviser)
James Black / Tom Ballard
(Corporate Broker) 020 7260 1000
MHP Communications (Financial 020 3128 8100
PR) keywords@mhpc.com
Katie Hunt / Jade Neal /
Ollie Hoare
Ends
Certain information contained in this announcement would have
constituted inside information (as
defined by Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014) prior to
its release as part of this announcement.
About Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)
Keywords Studios is an international technical services provider
to the global video games industry. Established in 1998, and now
with facilities in Dublin, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal, Quebec City,
Portland, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo, Singapore, New
Delhi, Pune, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Taipei, Shanghai,
Beijing, Manila, Hamburg, Paris, Brighton and London, it provides
integrated art creation, localisation, testing, audio and customer
care services across 50 languages and 14 games platforms to a blue
chip client base in more than 15 countries. It has a strong market
position, providing services to 21 of the top 25 most prominent
games companies, including Microsoft, Supercell, King, Bandai
Namco, Sony, Konami, Electronic Arts, 2K, and Square Enix. Recent
titles worked on include Tom Clancy's The Division, Halo 5:
Guardians, Batman: Arkham Knight, Street Fighter V, Rise of the
Tomb Raider, Clash Royale, Mobile Strike. Keywords is listed on
AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (KWS.L).
About Enzyme (www.enzyme.org)
Enzyme Testing Labs Inc. was founded in 2002 and is based in
Saint-Jérôme, Canada with additional office locations in Montreal,
Canada and Kawasaki, Japan. From AAA projects to casual mobile
titles, Enzyme provides testing services on all platforms for the
video-games industry. Those services include functionality testing,
localisation testing, compliance testing, compatibility testing,
connectivity testing and multiplayer network performance services,
as well as focus groups and usability testing. Enzyme also provides
localisation and multilingual customer support services.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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