GAME Group Raises Fiscal Year Expectations

A new trading statement from UK based retailer GAME Group has seen the company raise its profit estimates for the full financial year from £73 ($145m) to £74 million ($147m). Both figures are greatly in advance of the 2007 full year profit of £29.5 million ($59m). Although assimilation of the recently acquired Gamestation business is going ahead of schedule, the increase in estimates is also attributed to continued strong trading, with the company suggesting that continued support for five successful hardware formats is stimulating growth. Life-for-like sales have been up around 43 percent for the fifty weeks ended 12 January 2008, but the company expects relatively limited like-for-like growth during the current financial year of between 5 and 10 percent. Gross margins are expected to improve by between 50 and 100 basis points for year, as the proportion of software rather than hardware sales increases and benefits from the Gamestation acquisition begin to take effect. The company singles out Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit and Grand Theft Auto IV as some of the most significant of the next few months in Europe, while describing the PC and video games market in general as “buoyant”. Preliminary results for the current financial year are expected on April 29th 2008.