A view of the Ubisoft Entertainment logo on a panel during a news conference at the company's headquarters in Saint-Mande, near Paris, France, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Jan 22 (Reuters) - Shares in Ubisoft plunged on Thursday after the French video game publisher announced a sweeping reorganisation and said it would cancel six games.
Shares of the "Assassin's Creed" video game series creator dropped 33% in a delayed start to trading, leading losses on the SBF 120 index of Paris' most traded stocks.
They were on track for their biggest one-day drop since the company's 1996 listing if the losses hold.
The Paris-based company plans to split into five creative divisions that will regroup its titles based on game genres.
Ubisoft also said it would ditch development for six games, including a highly-anticipated "Prince of Persia" remake, and narrowed its net bookings forecast for 2026, while withdrawing its earlier guidance for fiscal 2026/27.
"The prospect of a return to positive cash generation appears distant, and the financial structure is likely to be weakened again in the near term," Corentin Marty, analyst at brokerage firm TP ICAP Midcap, said in a note to clients.
Shares were trading at 4.6 euros in early Thursday trading, giving Ubisoft a market value of 616 million euros ($720 million).
Its shares nearly halved in value last year, falling below 1 billion euros of market capitalization, compared to their peak of 11 billion euros in 2018, according to LSEG data.
($1 = 0.8558 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Clement Martinot in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
