GVC Holdings PLC (AIM:GVC), the multinational sports betting and gaming group, today announces a positive trading update for the six months to 30 June 2015, along with announcing a quarterly dividend of 14.0€cents per share. The dividend will be payable on Monday 17 August 2014 to shareholders on the register on Friday 24 July 2014, and the shares will go ex-dividend on Thursday 23 July 2014.
The dividend declared today is in addition to the 12.5€cents declared on 12 January 2015 and the 15.5€cents declared on 23 March 2015 and brings the total declared for the year to date to 42.0€cents, 5% higher than at the same period last year, being 40.0€cents.
Trading overview
The GVC Board is pleased to announce record trading for the six months to 30 June 2015. Sports wagers increased by 19% to €823million (H1-2014: €694 million) and the aggregate sports margin was 8.9% (H1-2014: 9.9%), reflecting well publicised "punter-friendly" results in the year to date. Net Gaming Revenue ("NGR") performed strongly, reaching €120million in the period, up 14% on the same period last year despite the benefit, in June 2014 alone, of 54 additional football fixtures in the World Cup.
Customer deposits also rose significantly reaching €1.7million per day in H1-2015, 18% higher than H1-2014 (€1.5million).
The second quarter of 2015 showed a particularly pleasing result with sports wagers averaging €4.5million per day (Q2-2014: €3.9million), and NGR averaging €661,000 per day (Q2-2014: €602k). This strength in trading continued into June with NGR higher than that for June 2014 when the World Cup was being played.
