December 2015
Aristocrat Leisure (ALL) is now well positioned after a restructure driven by CEO, Jamie Odell.
ALL has invested heavily in product content across its various divisions over the past few years and we are now seeing this bear fruit for the revenue and profit lines of the business. As a direct result of this investment, ALL appears to be gaining market share in participation gaming (annuity income stream) in the US and the outright game sales business in the US and Australia. ALL is also benefiting from the explosive growth, off a low base, of its digital business which should continue to deliver material value in coming periods.
There has also been a dramatic change in the industry structure over the past 18 months with IGT being acquired by an Italian lottery company and Scientific Gaming acquiring Bally and WMS. This industry consolidation has left IGT and Scientific Gaming heavily indebted. ALL also participated in the consolidation wave by acquiring VGT, which provides participation games into Indian casinos in certain jurisdictions. This acquisition appears to have been well executed, assisted by low synergy targets, an attractive acquisition price and a far more manageable debt level post-acquisition than its two main competitors.