TIDMKWS
RNS Number : 0934N
Keywords Studios PLC
04 August 2017
4 August 2017
Keywords Studios plc ("Keywords Studios", "the Group")
Acquisitions position Keywords Studios as the clear leader of
the important French game localisation and voice-over recording
market
Keywords Studios, the international technical services provider
to the global video games industry, today announces the
acquisitions of La Marque Rose SARL, Asrec SAS and the subsidiary
companies of holding company, Dune Media SAS, trading as Dune Sound
and Around the Word, which are all based in Paris and provide audio
recording and localisation services to the video games industry
internationally.
The acquisitions are in line with our strategy of consolidating
our leading position in the highly fragmented video games services
industry and generating synergies through scale in certain services
and geographies. These acquisitions will allow us to consolidate
the leading providers of audio and localisation services in French
which, together with German, remain the most important localised
languages for games.
Our intention is to integrate La Marque Rose, Dune Sound, Around
the Word and Asrec with our existing recording studio in Paris
(acquired as part of the Synthesis acquisition in April 2016). The
scale of the combined operation will support an investment of
around EUR1m in new audio recording studios and offices that will
accommodate all 50 employees in a single location and provide a
true destination for French voice-over recording.
All but one of the six founders and shareholders will remain in
the businesses with Michel Golgevit, founder of Dune being
appointed as CEO of the combined companies.
La Marque Rose was founded in 1989 and has a well-earned
reputation for setting the gold standard in French audio for games.
Established in 1998, Dune Sound (audio recording) and Around the
Word (game localisation), which also has a small presence in
Germany and in Canada, are together the largest providers of French
language video game localisation. Asrec started in 2010 and has
been successfully providing Keywords, Synthesis and Binari Sonori
with French audio recording for the past four years in a highly
flexible and efficient manner.
The businesses being acquired have combined annual revenues of
EUR9.0m and profit before tax of EUR0.9m. The total aggregate
consideration payable is EUR6.6m on day one and up to a further
EUR1.0m over the two years to 31 December 2019, based on meeting
performance targets for the combined businesses. Of the total
aggregate consideration of up to EUR7.6m, up to EUR6.7m is being
satisfied in cash, and the remainder through the issue of 75,796
new ordinary shares in Keywords. Of this total, 9,534 new shares
will be issued on day one (and are subject to a 12 month hard
lock-in) and the balance will be issued on the first anniversary of
completion.
Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the
admission of 9,534 new ordinary shares to trading on AIM. Admission
of the new shares is expected to take place at 8.00am on 10 August
2017. The Company's total issued share capital following admission
will consist of 55,797,528 ordinary shares of one pence each with
one voting right per share. The above figure of 55,797,528 may be
used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by
which they can determine if they are required to notify their
interest in, or a change to their interest in, the Company
following admission.
Fulvio Sioli, European Managing Director of Keywords Studios,
commented:
"These acquisitions are an important milestone in the
development of our Localisation and Audio Services business lines
in Europe. While the trend for game developers and publishers to
increasingly source all languages from a single provider is clear,
some clients continue to want to transact separately for individual
languages. This is still most prevalent for those regarded as
pillar languages of which French is probably still the most
important. The combination of La Marque Rose, Dune Sound, Around
the Word and Asrec with our existing Keywords studio, gives us a
leading share of this games production work.
"The consolidation of these businesses gives us the combined
scale to support investment in new, state of the art recording
facilities which will ensure that we can service the growing demand
for French audio and localisation services, with the high level of
quality our customers expect, for many years to come.
"We look forward to welcoming the teams at La Marque Rose, Dune
Sound, Around the Word and Asrec into the Keywords family. We see
this as the beginning of the next chapter in the market for French
audio production, localisation and related media. Having such
talented audio and localisation professionals pooling their
expertise for the benefits of so many of the world's leading video
games is exciting to see."
For further information, please contact:
Keywords Studios (www.keywordsstudios.com)
Andrew Day, Chief Executive
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 8156
PR) keywords@mhpc.com
Katie Hunt / Ollie Hoare
/ Nessyah Hart
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, Orlando, Raleigh, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Seattle,
Tokyo, Singapore, New Delhi, Pune, Rome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid,
Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Manila,
Yogyakarta, Hamburg, Paris and London, it provides integrated art
creation, software engineering, testing, localisation, 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 23 of the top 25 most
prominent games companies, including Activision Blizzard, Bandai
Namco, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Konami, Riot Games, Sony, Square
Enix, Supercell, TakeTwo, and Ubisoft. Recent titles worked on
include Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare,
Mortal Combat X, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Battlefield 1,
Overwatch, World of Warcraft: Legion, Hearthstone, Clash Royale,
and Mobile Strike. Keywords Studios is listed on AIM, the London
Stock Exchange regulated market (KWS.L).
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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