Inspired Entertainment “seriously exploring” holiday parks sale following restructuring
Nasdaq-listed supplier says it had laid the groundwork for future growth ahead of the planned disposal of business that operates within its leisure division
Inspired Entertainment is “seriously exploring” the sale of its holiday parks supply business after the company reported its Q4 and full-year 2024 results.
Speaking on an analyst call yesterday, 17 March, executive chair A Lorne Weil responded to a question regarding the supplier’s M&A plans, as he said selling the division was a concrete option.
The virtuals supplier’s holiday parks business lies within its leisure division, which also encompasses the supply of content to pubs, bingo halls and motorway service stations.
The last major announcement concerning the holiday parks division was in March 2024 when Inspired Entertainment penned a long-term contract extension with UK business Parkdean Resorts.
The leisure arm reported a 7% jump in Q4 revenue to $22.5m, with group revenue up 2% to $83m.
Regarding the potential divestment, Weil said: “On the strategic review, we’re seriously exploring the sale of holiday parks. We’re cautiously optimistic that we’re going to come to a favourable conclusion.
“But until something is firm, there’s not much more we can say, but it’s certainly moving in the right direction.
“We’ve been working on restructuring the rest of the business in anticipation of doing that. Beyond that, I don’t think we have any intention or any reason to be thinking about divestment because the rest of the business is performing extremely well.”
On the restructuring, Inspired Entertainment made reference to the process in its earnings report, detailing “measures to streamline business and product development”.
The company added: “This includes unifying all of our product and platform teams across segments, including virtual sports, under one cohesive leadership group.
“We believe an integrated approach, combined with some innovative new products, will drive future growth.”
Group restructuring costs for the 12 months to 31 December 2024 hit $5.1m, with $3.7m of those costs coming from the group’s gaming arm, and $1.4m from corporate.
Inspired Entertainment said $2.3m of those costs came in Q4 alone, with $2.2m assigned to gaming and $100,000 related to corporate.
On sanctioning any M&A to add to the business, Weil noted the Nasdaq-listed company was “always looking for something that makes sense”.
He said: “We have an active programme. Our balance sheet is in very good shape in terms of having capacity to do something. We have a fairly rigid set of criteria for anything we might do.
“Right now, there is nothing on the horizon, but we continue to look. And if something comes along that fits the criteria, then we’ll go ahead with it.”
The group’s shares are up almost 10%, at the time of writing, to $9.17. However, the share price has been flat over the past 12 months.