CentralNic Group - Organic growth continues to accelerate

Ahead of CentralNic’s seasonally strongest quarter, it has reported trading for the first nine months of FY21 (9M21) ahead of market expectations. Noting the acceleration of organic growth to 29% for 9M21, driven by the group’s investment programme, management expects to trade comfortably at or above the upper end of market expectations for the year for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA (expectations disclosed as US$355.3m and US$42.0m respectively). Accordingly, we have raised our FY21 revenue estimate by 10% to US$384m, with adjusted EBITDA rising to US$43m, an 11.2% margin, with these changes flowing through to our estimates for FY22/23. Adjusted operating cash conversion was in excess of 100%, meaning that net debt fell to US$79m as at 30 September 2021.