Nikkei Looks at GREE’s 2013 End-of-Year Performance

Posted 16:33 EST on 16JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financials, GREE

The following is a translation of the article as it appears on Social Game Info

The January 15th morning edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun puts GREE’s group operating profit for the final 3-month period of 2013 (October through December) at approximately 8 billion yen, an 18 percent decline from the preceding three-month period and a 40 percent decline in comparison to the same three-month period in 2012. GREE instituted a range of expenditure cuts, but these were not sufficient to offset income declines. However, the Nikkei points out that GREE’s operating profits exceeded the 7.2 billion yen anticipated by the QUICK Consensus.

Nikkei reports that income from GREE’s titles for traditional cellular phones, which in the past had been pillars of the company’s earnings, declined 9 percent from the preceding three-month period to a total of approximately 32 billion yen. This is the fourth financial quarter in a row in which these numbers have declined, and a 19 percent decline in comparison to the same financial period in 2012. Meanwhile, in the expanding smartphone market, GREE has struggled to produce a hit title to offset losses from the decline in popularity of traditional cellular phones.

There is positive news, however. Nikkei reports that “in contrast to the period from July through September, GREE did not experience losses due to reigning in or cutting poorly performing titles. As a result bottom-line profits increased slightly in the period from October through December.”

In response to the Nikkei’s report, GREE issued a short release reminding investors that the reports were “based on figures issued by a financial institution, which are not official”. GREE is expected to address earnings for the final three months of 2013 in its second-quarter budget on the 14th of February.

News source: Social Game Info