(Reuters) - French video games maker Ubisoft cut its full-year 2018-2019 sales guidance but sees room to boost profitability by relying more on older games, the company said on Tuesday.
Annual sales for 2018-2019 are now expected to reach about 2.10 billion euros ($2.33 billion), 4.5 percent below the 2.20 billion euros the company expected to reach when announcing its medium-term targets in Feb. 2016.
The company kept its operating profit target for the 2018-2019 year at around 440 million euros, increasing its operating target margin to 21 percent from 20 percent previously.
"We are depend much less on new games launches...," chief financial officer Alain Martinez said to in call with reporters.
“This allowed us to largely offset the fact that we have one fewer game and still be able to have an improved profitability," he added.
For the current fiscal year ending in March, Ubisoft reported a 4.7 percent rise in full-year sales to 1.46 billion euros, close to the bottom end of its lowered target range of 1.46-1.50 billion euros announced in February.
Full-year operating income rose 40.7 percent to 237.7 million euros, in line with the company's original target of 230-250 million euros, Ubisoft said in a statement.
The maker of the Assasin's Creed and South Park game series announced it expects annual sales for the current fiscal year of around 1.70 billion euros, adding that first-quarter sales should account for approximately 170.0 million euros, a 22 percent increase on last year's figure.
Annual non-IFRS operating income should reach 270.0 million euros, the company said. ($1 = 0.9030 euros)
(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski and Wout Vergauwen; Editin by Mathieu Rosemain)