DJI enjoys significant growth in wake of IPO

CHESHIRE-based DJI Holdings, a distributor of Chinese sports and welfare lottery products, is celebrating spectacular results following its AIM listing in July 2014.

This is despite the suspension of online sales during a regulatory review in China.

The company’s sales for the year ended December 31 shot to £642.4m from £22.2m at the end of 2013.

Turnover increased from £1.1m to £13.4m and its pre-tax operating loss of £7.2m was more than halved to £2.4m.

A key element in the Knutsford company’s performance was the successful integration of two lottery ticket fulfilment businesses acquired in Q4 2013 and subsequent purchase of specialty online sports lottery consumer business in Q1 2014.

There was also the development of direct-to-consumer web and mobile lottery ticket sales businesss.

A joint venture agreement with Xinhuatong Software Development (Beijing) Co Limited, gaining access to a large online and mobile customer base was also a factor.

In addition, significant progress was made with an application process to deliver high-frequency horse racing games.

A new offline-to-online sports lottery contract with Heilongjiang Province was also launched.

However, a temporary suspension of online sales is continuing while regulatory review progresses in China
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DJI chief executive Darren Mercer said: “This was a year of significant progress for DJI Holdings.

“The acquisitions and joint venture agreements completed prior to our IPO and listing in July have positioned our business to capitalise on the fast growing online sector of the Chinese lottery industry.

“The March 2015 temporary suspension of online sales continues pending regulatory changes, but when these sales resume, we expect Chinese consumers increasingly to choose web and mobile as their channel of choice for lottery ticket purchases.”