NOVOMATIC Financial Results: Revenue, Profit and Cash Flow

NOVOMATIC's 2025 results at a glance

The figures below are for the year ended 31 December in € million, unless a percentage is shown. The 2024 revenue comparator is the restated amount used in the 2025 group accounts; it is not the revenue originally presented in the earlier report.

¹ Calculated as operating profit divided by reported revenue; margins and percentage changes are the author's calculations from the stated figures.

NOVOMATIC did not increase comparable headline revenue in 2025. The operating result improved sharply, although the summary figures alone cannot establish every cause.

The group's own 2025 Company Report identifies divestments, including the disposal of its Austrian operating businesses, as the principal reason for the overall revenue decline. It also describes growth in both Gaming Operations and Gaming Technology. Those claims concern revenue movements; they should not be treated as a complete explanation for the €187.0 million rise in operating profit. The audited group management report records €331.8 million of other operating income, up €204.8 million, and identifies deconsolidation effects as the principal source of that increase. The stronger reported earnings therefore should not be read as an equivalent improvement in recurring trading profit.

Why the 2024 revenue comparison was restated

This is the most easily missed detail in the NOVOMATIC annual report comparison. The originally presented FY2024 revenue was €3,453.4 million. The later FY2025 financial statements show €3,706.7 million for the 2024 comparative period, an increase of €253.3 million in the reported revenue line.

The group accounts attribute this to an accounting presentation change involving Italian concessions, under IFRS 15 and IAS 8. Revenue that had previously been presented on a net basis was presented gross in the revised comparison. Corresponding operating expenses also increased, so the change did not create an equivalent rise in operating profit or operating cash flow.

Comparing 2025 revenue with the original 2024 figure misleadingly suggests 4.7% growth. The company's restated comparator instead shows a 2.4% decline. Changing the base year reverses the conclusion.

A 2023 consolidated revenue figure of €3,248.0 million also appears in the earlier financial record. However, that figure comes from the older presentation. I would not draw a continuous 2023-2025 growth chart from it without reconstructing the missing 2023 adjustment. The 2024 restatement makes a simple three-year revenue line less reliable than it looks.

Profitability improved despite the revenue decline

Operating profit increased by €187.0 million, from €264.2 million to €451.2 million. Measured against the relevant annual revenue, the operating margin moved from 7.13% to 12.48%. This is a 5.35-percentage-point improvement, calculated from the disclosed figures rather than a separately stated management target.

Revenue measures business scale; operating profit reflects what remains after operating expenses. Neither measures cash available to shareholders on its own.

Pre-tax profit reached €368.9 million. The consolidated profit for the year was €289.6 million. The amount attributable to owners of the parent, €294.7 million, differs because the result attributable to non-controlling interests was a €5.1 million loss. These are legitimate distinctions in group reporting, not competing estimates of one figure.

NOVOMATIC supplies gaming technology and operates gaming venues. Their economics differ, as our analysis of how NOVOMATIC's business model works explains. It would be premature to attribute the entire profit increase to one division without segment and exceptional-item notes.

Cash flow: what the operations actually generated

The group's cash-flow statement provides a different test of its performance. Operating activities generated €621.7 million during 2025, compared with €639.6 million in 2024. In other words, operating cash flow fell by 2.8% even as accounting profit increased considerably.

The group generated substantial operating cash despite lower revenue. Yet cash flow fell while operating profit increased: improved earnings are not the same as additional operating cash.

Subtracting the €311.9 million net investing outflow from operating inflow leaves €309.8 million of combined net cash from operating and investing activities. This is an arithmetic subtotal, not automatically a recognised free-cash-flow measure. Investing cash flow can include acquisitions, disposals, purchases and sales of financial assets, as well as spending on property or equipment. It is not synonymous with capital expenditure.

After €216.9 million of net financing outflows, these three categories sum to €92.9 million. This is not automatically the change in balance-sheet cash: currency movements and cash classification may affect the reconciliation.

One further distinction prevents double-counting. The 2025 income statement includes €487.0 million of gaming taxes and duties, and a revenue-after-gaming-taxes figure of €3,129.8 million. The latter is not another independent stream of revenue to add to the €3,616.8 million headline total. It is a differently presented step in the same income statement.

Balance sheet, liquidity and the limits of debt analysis

At 31 December 2025, consolidated assets were €4,777.5 million and total equity, including non-controlling interests, stood at €1,591.3 million. Cash and cash equivalents in the balance sheet were €592.4 million, up from €419.7 million in the latest 2024 comparative balance sheet.

The calculated equity-to-assets ratio was 33.3% and the current ratio approximately 1.76. Neither is a borrowing covenant or proof that every current asset is immediately liquid.

Current and non-current liabilities together amount to €3,186.1 million. That figure must not be labelled the group's interest-bearing debt or net debt. Liabilities can contain trade payables, provisions, taxes, lease obligations and other balances. A reliable leverage assessment requires the exact borrowing and lease breakdown, repayment maturities and the group's own net-debt definition, which cannot safely be reconstructed from the summary lines alone.

There is also a subtle cash-comparison issue: the 2024 cash figure within the earlier cash-flow presentation was €503.4 million, whereas the later comparative balance-sheet cash line was €419.7 million. The cash-flow and balance-sheet presentations use different cash perimeters, including cash within disposal groups. I have kept the balance-sheet comparison on its stated basis rather than treating both figures as interchangeable.

What is and is not included in these figures

NOVOMATIC AG is a private Austrian group that consolidates controlled subsidiaries; individual companies also publish separate statutory accounts. Adding their sales to consolidated revenue risks double-counting.

For scale, the individual 2025 statutory accounts show £1.89 million in turnover and a £6.09 million operating loss at Novomatic UK Ltd. Greentube UK, a different company, reported £14.74 million in revenue and £7.28 million in operating profit. These figures belong to separate GBP accounts. Neither should be presented as NOVOMATIC's consolidated UK revenue or added to the group-wide euro amount.

An Ainsworth half-year result in Australian dollars likewise cannot be combined with NOVOMATIC's full-year euro statement. See NOVOMATIC capital and Ainsworth shares and the group's ownership and management separately.

Where the numbers come from and what remains uncertain

The primary financial basis is the NOVOMATIC AG consolidated 2025 financial statement, reproduced within the 2025 statutory filing of Novomatic UK Ltd. The AG accounts are expressed in € million and accompanied by an audit report from Deloitte Audit Wirtschaftsprüfung GmbH, dated 17 March 2026. The English wording is identified as a translation; the German original governs if an exact legal interpretation is required.

NOVOMATIC's own Company Report 2025, published in April 2026, independently confirms the central revenue comparison of €3,616.8 million against €3,706.7 million. The Austrian EVI company register also lists a consolidated statement for the year ended 31 December 2025. A 2025 report made available during 2026 remains a report about FY2025, not financial results for 2026.

I have not located a 2026 NOVOMATIC AG consolidated interim statement in the official publications reviewed; this does not prove none exists. A net-debt comparison also requires a consistent definition of borrowing, leases and available cash.

My assessment of NOVOMATIC's financial position

In my reading, the main 2025 development is in operating profitability, not turnover. The restated 2024 figure is essential: overlooking it reverses the apparent revenue trend. NOVOMATIC's divestment explanation clarifies the revenue decline but not every driver of profit growth.

Second, €621.7 million of operating cash inflow is a significant financial counterweight to a lower revenue headline. It does not erase the need to inspect investing flows, financing obligations and cash restrictions. Third, the balance sheet contains meaningful equity and cash, yet treating all liabilities as bank debt would distort the picture.

Those are measured conclusions rather than a share-price prediction. The next question is whether the group can sustain its improved margins amid acquisitions, disposals and regulatory pressures; our NOVOMATIC business risks and prospects analysis deals with those uncertainties in their own right.