Animoca Brands stays busy in Q4 as annual cash receipts reach $25.1m

Special Report: The company continues to drive business through key acquisitions as it breaks new ground in the commercialisation of blockchain, gaming and sports.

With quarterlies season in full swing, blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands (ASX:AB1) had some interesting updates for the market when it released its Q4 trading numbers last week.

The company reported its highest quarterly income figure for the year, booking $10.1m of cash receipts from operating activities for the three months to December 31.

That increase resulted in year-end cash receipts of $25.1m, the result of an exciting year which saw Animoca Brands significantly upgrade its stable of major gaming titles while its share price more than doubled.

And heading into 2020, Animoca Brands’ 4C filing showed that the company is staying aggressive on the acquisition trail as it looks to stay one step ahead of the competition in the fast-growing blockchain gaming industry.

Activity in Q4 was highlighted by the company’s planned acquisition of nWay Inc, a leading multi-channel game developer with AAA game titles and which has the global licence to develop games based on the Power Rangers brand.

nWay’s management team is led by executives with development and sales experience at major companies including Google, Tencent, Sony and Electronic Arts.

nWay booked revenue of $US6.98m ($10.2m) across the first eight months of 2019, and Animoca Brands will acquire the business for a total consideration of $US7.69m ($11.4m), comprised of $US1.94m ($2.9m) in cash and US$5.75m ($8.5m) in shares at an indicative price of 18c per share.

The deal will add another marquee brand name to Animoca Brands portfolio – part of a strategy which made investors stand up and take notice in 2019 as the share price climbed.

Other world-class brands in the company’s game offerings include Formula 1, MotoGP, FC Bayern Munich, and Beast Quest, among various others.

In addition to its $US420,000 acquisition of shares in Sky Mavis (the parent company of Axie Infinity, one of the world’s highest grossing blockchain games), Animoca Brands also secured an advisory agreement to receive consulting services around the integration of blockchain-gaming initiatives such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“We’ve had an exciting year during which we have made exciting acquisitions and expanded our business,” said Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu. “We look forward to continuing this growth in 2020 and consolidating our early lead in the blockchain gaming space”

On the regulatory side, the company remains in negotiations with the ASX as announced in the company’s announcement of 24 December 2019.

But in the meantime, the company continues to drive ahead in the development of popular gaming brands as it consolidates its first-mover advantage in building out the market for tokenised in-game assets.

In fact, Animoca Brands was recently ranked fifth in Blockchaingamer.biz’s Top 50 blockchain companies in the world for 2020, in recognition of the company’s progress and efforts in the area of branded blockchain gaming and promotion of non-fungible tokens. The top 50 list also includes The Sandbox at number 13, which is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands.

Animoca Brands also invested in various blockchain companies that are also ranked in the list, including Dapper Labs (#3), Sky Mavis (#6), WAX (#9), Experimental (#15), Decentraland (#18), and Lucid Sight (#23).