Angry bird gains growth again

Finnish game maker Rovio, best known for its Angry Birds franchise, reported on Friday its fourth-quarter operating profit increased, driven by growth in its top three games.

“All our top three games Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Dream Blast and Angry Birds Friends grew year on year,” the Helsinki-based mobile game maker said

Rovio expects strong sales growth this year, but said adjusted operating profit will decline year-over-year due to investments in the development and marketing of new games.

Rovio is seeking growth from diversifying its portfolio, having acquired Turkish Ruby Games in August and by partnering up to create new mobile games for Moomins, cartoon characters originally popular from a series of books and a comic strip.

“We continue our M&A efforts, aiming to build new growth avenues within casual games, grow our audience network, and establish value through synergies across our game portfolio and studios,” Rovio Chief Executive Alex Pelletier-Normand said in a statement.

Rovio reported an underlying operating profit of 13.1 million euros ($14.90 million) for the October-December quarter, up around 75% from a year earlier.

Rovio’s board proposed a dividend of 0.12 euros per share.