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Novomatic closes the 2009 financial year with a fall in turnover of more than 30 million euro compared to the previous year. This is one of the facts emerging from the presentation of Novomatic’s balance sheet for last year; this Austrian colossus is committed to investing directly in the new Italian videolottery market.
In 2009 it recorded total takings of over 1.2 billion euro with a net profit of 59 million euro, against 243 million in the previous year. Having a large impact has been the closure of all its activities on Russian soil, where the coming into force of a prohibition on slots has cost the company over 43 million euro. “Added to this are all the problems with the exchange rate in Romania and Hungary, and hence the difficulties associated with the loss of purchasing power in some foreign countries” said the General Manager Franz Wohlfahrt. “With the objective of guaranteeing permanent workplaces, the company has decided to make significant investments - he added. The 8,865 employees of Novomatic could soon rise to 10,331, in Austria alone they have created 100 new workplaces.
2009, a difficult year
2009 has been a very difficult year for the gaming industry both in terms of a drop in takings in the casinos and a contraction of the demand for “gaming”. In 2008 Novomatic produced 110,000 gaming machines, but only 60,000 in 2009. Clients are worried about the economic crisis and have adopted a very cautious attitude. Despite this, at the general headquarters of the Austrian company they are optimistic in this regard and on the basis of the results for the first quarter, expect the results for 2010 to be in line with those of 2009.
Entry to the Italian market
In addition to its production and management activities, in the near future Novomatic intends to focus its business on gaming via the Internet. This third string to its bow should soon represent 15-20% of the turnover. With 195 Admiral Sportwetten centres the General Manager reports “We are reaching market saturation point. It is unlikely that there will be any significant subsequent increase in the number of centres”. The future at an international level is represented by Italy where in the next few months we shall be installing 14,000 videolottery terminals. In the next three years all eyes will be focused on Spain. “We are anxious to gain a better foothold in Europe” said Wohlfahrt.
Therefore it comes as no surprise that in order to obtain the rights to the videolottery through some of the ten licenced slot operators, Novomatic has already spent 32,347,000 euro, to which should be added its significant investments in acquiring or setting up new companies that will operate in the domestic market.
Within the long list of companies in the Group, that are spread all around the world, one finds Admiral Bet Italy s.r.l.. (Punto Italbet s.r.l.), that operates in the betting sector, as does Admiral Italia Scommessema and also SNT Gaming S.r.l., Adria Gaming Firenze S.r.l., Adria Gaming Milano S.r.l., Adria Gaming Services S.r.l., Allstar Italiana S.r.l., Golden Games S.r.l., Sluma Games S.r.l. and SW S.R.L.
