After announcing in January that it was proceeding with its $354.5 million plan to purchase a controlling stake in Ainsworth Game Technology Limited, giant Austrian gaming firm Novomatic AG has now released its financial results for the twelve months to the end of December showing that total sales hit €4.9 billion (US$5.89 billion) for the first time in its 37-year history.

Gumpoldskirchen-headquartered Novomatic AG revealed that sales from its core gaming operations and technology provision businesses had increased by 11% year-on-year to top €2.52 billion (US$3.03 billion) while it had added a further 1,687 members of staff to its ranks to bring its total employee count to 25,536 with some 3,300 of these based in its home nation of Austria.

In terms of its gaming operations business, Novomatic AG declared that annual revenues had risen by almost 20% year-on-year to reach €1.58 billion (US$1.91 billion) although its 2017 technology and machine sales figures dropped by a little over 1% to €937 million (US$1.12 billion).

Novomatic AG stated that its overall business had remained ‘stable’ during the course of 2017 with its annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization increasing only slightly year-on-year to €587 million (US$705.89 million) while its operative cash flow of €419 million (US$503.85 million) represented a 2.3% diminution.

“Spain was a growth driver with an increase in sales of over 50% but other core markets such as Central and Eastern Europe, Italy and Great Britain also performed well in 2017,” read a Friday statement (pdf) from Harald Neumann, Chief Executive Officer for Novomatic AG.

Novomatic AG detailed that it had made investments of €650 million (US$781.62 million) over the course of 2017 while its total tax and duty payments had swelled by over 26% year-on-year to €539 million (US$648.12 million) including €91 million (US$109.44 million) to the government of its home nation.