(Boursier.com) — Focus Entertainment is stable the day after the announcement, unsurprisingly, of a sharp decline in quarterly activity: turnover for the 3rd quarter of 2023-2024 reached 43.3 million euros, down 43%.
Beyond this publication which had a limited impact, expectations are now focused on the Q4 line up, in particular on the launch of Banishers on February 13 (co-IP with Don’t Nod), which will be decisive for the Focus’s cash landing at the end of the financial year, notes Oddo BHF. To a lesser extent, the Expeditions launch also presents a topline issue in Q4 even if Focus does not hold the IP (Saber partnership). Governance evolved at the start of the year with the appointment of Geoffroy Sardin (ex Ubisoft) as Deputy Managing Director. At the same time, as announced during the Analyst Forum last week, the group detailed last night its new organization now around 3 separate entities: Publishing: historical activity of Focus; Services: publishing of independent games, licensing, retrogaming; Studios: grouping of the 7 Focus production studios. Finally, the change in the company name of Focus will be submitted to the next AGM, with the objective of bringing together the 3 activities under the PulluP Entertainment brand.
Investors should remain attentive in the short term, at least until the release of Banishers in 3 weeks, the launch of which will determine whether or not a capital raise is necessary in the short term. In this context, the broker’s forecasts remain unchanged, like its target of 27 euros. The broker maintains an ‘outperform’ opinion given the potential rebound in results for 2024/25 and the valuation (EV/EBIT 9x 2024/25).
TP ICAP Midcap notes that the short-term outlook remains very strong with the arrival of numerous launches of significant size. The valuation no longer makes sense and highlights a fantastic ‘buying’ opportunity, according to the broker.
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