By Najat Kantouar
XLMedia, a digital media company, has announced an increase in pretax profit for the first half of 2023, despite a decline in revenue from North America and Europe. The company reported a pretax profit of $6.8 million for the six-month period ending June 30, compared to $3.1 million in the same period the previous year. This increase is attributed to a reversal on an impairment and the sale of its European Gaming assets, which resulted in $4 million in previous impairment charges.
However, XLMedia’s revenue dropped from $43.3 million to $28.8 million, partly due to the sale of its loss-making personal-finance business for $2.05 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) decreased from $11.9 million to $6.9 million.
XLMedia expects its full-year adjusted EBITDA to be in line with management’s expectations. The company’s gross profit from continuing operations declined by 33% to $14.9 million, primarily due to a decrease in North America gross margin.
According to Chief Executive Officer David King, the group’s overall growth is not expected to be linear, as affiliate revenues in North America primarily consist of one-off introductory fees, and the timing and scale of new state launches impact period-to-period comparisons. XLMedia is working on developing revenue-share relationships with operators in the U.S. while simultaneously focusing on building recurring revenues in Europe.
