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Ubisoft Entertainment SA made the unusual decision to delay the publication of its first-half financial results on the day that they were due to be released. The company also requested that the trading of its shares be halted.
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The French gaming company behind Assassin’s Creed, with multiple studios across Canada, said it would publish its results “in the coming days” instead, without providing further detail. In a statement, Ubisoft said it had also asked Euronext to halt trading of its shares and its bonds until its results are published and would “will inform the market of the date on which trading will restart.”
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The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for more comment but said in a memo to employees that it was “taking extra time to finalize the closing of the semester.” Ubisoft’s American depositary receipts slid as much as 19 per cent. Its shares in Paris have fallen 49 per cent this year and closed down almost one per cent at €6.77 ($11.04) earlier on Thursday.
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It’s unusual for any publicly traded company to postpone an earnings report on the day of its scheduled release, and the move threatens to escalate concerns about recent setbacks that the company has suffered. In May, Ubisoft said it would need more time to develop some of its biggest titles and forecast no revenue growth for the fiscal year. Last year, Ubisoft pushed back the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to make improvements after a Star Wars franchise game received middling reviews.
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Ubisoft’s chief financial officer Frederick Duguet had been due to host a media briefing call shortly before the market close in Paris on Thursday and ahead of the planned financial results later in the day. That call was postponed without explanation and then cancelled.
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Earlier this year, Ubisoft announced a tie-up with Tencent Holdings Ltd. in which the Chinese company would invest €1.16 billion ($1.89 billion) into a new subsidiary that would hold key titles, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. It was the outcome of a process that started in January, after last year’s launch of Star Wars Outlaws disappointed and the latest Assassin’s Creed installment was delayed.
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Ubisoft said in its memo to employees that it had requested the trading halt “to limit unnecessary speculation and market volatility during this short delay.”
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