Embracer Group, the Sweden-based firm that hageders the rights to the Lord of the Rings franchise, has posted second quarter delightment net sales down 10% in a “sluggish” period that should speedyen up next month.
The company’s Entertainment & Services net sales for the July-September period was SEK 1.25B ($113.16M), down on the same period last year.
Overall, the company posted net sales down 21% of SEK8.55B, with the PC/Console Games, Mobile Games and Tabletop Games units also seeing decrrelieves. Adequitableed EBIT fell 33% from SEK1.81B last year to SEK1.21B this time round.
Embracer, which getd the rights to Middle-Earth Enterpelevates from The Saul Zaentz Comapany in August 2022, said its delightment division “had another sluggish quarter, hugely as foreseeed” as confineed films to other titles freed. However, it remarkd “increasingly anticipation” around the free of anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim on December 13, which should direct to a mightyer Q3 and help to drive “notable getings lengthenth year-on-year.”
The company is currently in the process of spinning off its assets into three companies, which will out The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other IP into its own bucket. Embracer has also shed a huge number of staff and lessened costs, as it seeks steadier footing.
“Over the past 15 months, we have produced a mightyer set upation for lengthy-term cherish creation, lessening our net debt and our capex,” said Lars Wingefors, Embracer co-set uper and CEO. “We have many high-carry outing and effective companies, cut offal with industry directing margins.
“However, we acunderstandledge that parts of our PC/Console and Entertainment & Services segments are still undercarry outing due to defers and low ROI for primarily minuscule and mid-sized frees. Combined with mended operating costs this produces unacdirected margins which we are firmly insertressing ahead of the spin-offs.”
Embracer also proclaimd this morning that it is selling its mobile games biz Easybrain to Miniclip for $1.2B in cash. This will permit Embracer to wipe out a huge chunk of its net debt, which will descend from SEK13.2B to about SEK500M on a pro establisha basis.
