Immotion losses widen as VR revenues and investment rise

Virtual reality entertainment group Immotion turned in a full-year loss on Wednesday as it poured cash into opening new arcades and developing new titles.

Immotion saw operating losses widen more than 2,000% to £3.75m in 2018 after investing heavily in its future throughout the year. Adjusted underlying losses hit £2.2m and the loss per share came to 1.71p.

However, the company assured investors it was now starting to see the results of its investment, signing two content licensing deals and witnessing strong trading across its concession partners and its own ImmotionVR stores since wrapping up the year on 31 December.

Revenues from VR operations swelled in the second half of the year to around £1.2m, up from £100,000 seen in the opening six months of the year.

Looking forward, the AIM-listed outfit said it was "well poised" to start building a strong annuity revenue business on the back of its comprehensive range of VR experiences, multiple major concession partners and a growing number of collegiate relationships with major retail landlords.

Chairman Robin Miller said: "We are very encouraged by the opportunities in front of us and we firmly believe that 2019 will be an exciting year for Immotion Group. We are very much focused on the delivery of revenue and profit and will continue to learn and adapt as the group grows."

As of 1100 BST, Immotion shares had slipped 8.79% to 4.61p.