Revenues Up 9% Year-over-Year – High-Quality Game Launches on Track
NEXON Co., Ltd. (“Nexon”) (3659.TO), a worldwide leader in free-to-play online games, today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2015.
“Our solid first quarter performance again validates our ongoing strategic focus on quality,” said Owen Mahoney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nexon. “We are making steady headway on our strategy, and I am pleased with our execution in key geographies, including China, where Dungeon&Fighter updates and item sales were extremely well-received, as well as Korea, where both PC online and mobile games delivered impressive results in a highly competitive market. We made several important announcements during the quarter, including a co-development deal with SQUARE ENIX to create a mobile version of FINAL FANTASY XI as well as Dungeon&Fighter mobile, which will be published by Tencent in China. More recently, we announced the launch of DomiNations in the U.S. and Europe and are seeing positive early results. We expect strong momentum to accelerate as we continue to launch high-quality games throughout 2015 and beyond.”
First Quarter 2015 Highlights:
- First quarter revenues were 52.0 billion yen, up 9% year-over-year. This was primarily due to good performance in China and Korea around the important Lunar New Year high-season and into March.
- PC online game revenues were 43.6 billion yen, up 8% year-over-year. Mobile game revenues were 8.4 billion yen, up 16% year-over-year. Native games revenues were 4.6 billion yen, which grew 2.8x compared to the previous year.
- Operating income was 22.2 billion yen, up 5% year-over-year. Operating income outperformance was primarily due to stronger than expected revenues, and less than expected marketing and HR expenses.
- Net income (Net income attributable to owners of parent) was 18.5 billion yen, up 15% year-over-year.
Second Quarter 2015 Outlook:
- Expect second quarter 2015 revenues in the range of 40.3 to 43.0 billion yen.
- Expect mobile revenues in the range of 10.2 to 11.2 billion yen.
- Expect Operating income in the range of 8.8 to 11.1 billion yen.
- Expect Net income (Net income attributable to owners of parent) in the range of 7.2 to 9.5 billion yen.
Conference Call and Replay:
Nexon management will host two conference calls to discuss Nexon’s financial results and outlook. A conference call for domestic investors will be held today at 5:30 p.m. JST / 4:30 a.m. EDT, and will be conducted in Japanese. A conference call for foreign investors, which will be conducted in English, will be held at 9 p.m. JST / 8 a.m. EDT on the same day. Each conference call will consist of prepared remarks made by management followed by a brief Q&A session.
Japanese Conference Call
Time: May 14 at 5:30 p.m. JST / 4:30 a.m. EDT
Telephone Number: +81-3-4570-1817 (Japan)
Pass Code: 410355#
A replay of the call will be available about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the conference call and can be accessed until May 21, 2015.
Japanese Conference Call Replay
Replay Telephone Number: +81-3-4570-4130 (Japan)
Reference Number: 214795#
English Conference Call
Time: May 14 at 9:00 p.m. JST / 8:00 a.m. EST
Telephone Number: +81-3- 4570-1816 (Japan), +1- 646-502-5131 (US),
+44-20-7660-2114 (UK), +852-306-00227 (Hong Kong),
+65-642-98366 (Singapore), +82-234-831-910 (Korea)
Pass Code: 680900#
A replay of the call will be available about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the conference call and can be accessed until May 21, 2015. A transcript of the call will be available within several days on Nexon’s Investor Relations website.
English Conference Call Replay
Replay Telephone Number: +81-3-4570-2856 (Japan)
Reference Number: 214798#
For additional information regarding Nexon’s 2015 first quarter financial results, please visit the Investor Relations section of Nexon’s website at http://ir.nexon.co.jp/en/.
This press release is prepared to offer reference information about Nexon to investors and is intended to generally provide investors and analysts with financial and operational information about Nexon, but not to solicit or recommend any sale or purchase of stock or other securities of Nexon.
