Games Workshop nears FTSE 100 promotion after strong trading

Games Workshop, the manufacturer of fantasy figurines and computer games, has reported better-than-expected trading since September, putting it on the cusp of being promoted to the FTSE 100.
Shares in the Nottingham-based company rose 16 per cent to a record high of £136 after a positive trading update.
The company, known for its Warhammer figurines, said it expected revenue in the six months to December 1 to surpass £260 million, up from £235.6 million during the first half of 2023.
Pre-tax profits are forecast to climb to £120 million in the first half of the year, up from £96.1 million during the same period last year.
Shares in Games Workshop have risen 36 per cent since the beginning of the year to become some of the most expensive on the FTSE 250. The company now has a market capitalisation of £4.4 billion.
Games Workshop was founded in 1975 by three friends who made wooden board games in their homes. It started life as a mail-order business for fantasy games. The company secured the European distribution rights to the role-playing game Dungeon & Dragons and opened its first shop in Hammersmith, west London, in 1978.
Its big breakthrough came in 1983 when its game designers came up with Warhammer, which is now the most popular miniature war game in the world. It now has more than 500 shops worldwide, where it sells models, books and board games and more than 1,500 staff working at its global headquarters in the UK.
The strong trading update comes after the company reported a record year of sales and profits in July as annual revenues climbed to £494.7 million.
In June sales at Games Workshop were buoyed by the release of a new version of its Warhammer 40,000 series. A deal to turn Warhammer into films and television series with Amazon, announced last December, is expected to add to its popularity. Henry Cavill, the British actor known for playing Superman, will be an executive producer and has signed up to appear in the project.
Analysts at the investment bank Jefferies flagged the group’s licensing unit as “the stand-out” area of the company: revenues in licensing are expected to reach £30 million in the first half of the year, up from £13 million during the same period last year. Most of the company’s licensing income comes from video game sales in North America, the UK and Europe.
Andrew Wade, an analyst at Jefferies, said the success of the division was “driven by the remarkable success of Space Marine 2, which had sold more than 4.5 million units by mid-October”. He added that the game was estimated to have contributed £20 million to licensing revenues during the first half alone.