Perfect World 1Q profit up 36 pct, beats Street

NEW YORK (AP) — Perfect World Co., a Chinese developer and operator of online games, said on Monday its first-quarter earnings rose 36 percent from a year ago despite a drop in the number of players.

The Beijing-based company behind games like "Perfect World" and "Ether Saga Online" said it earned 215.4 million yuan ($31.5 million) in the three months ended March 31 compared with 158.4 million yuan a year ago.

Perfect World earned 58 cents per U.S. share, or 62 cents excluding some items. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were on average expecting earnings of 46 cents per share, an estimate that usually excludes items.

Sales were 425.1 million yuan ($62.2 million), up 40 percent from 303.2 million yuan a year ago. Analysts were expecting sales of $57 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

Perfect World said that on average, 615,000 people were playing its games at any one time during the quarter, down from 660,000 in the same quarter a year ago. The number of active paying customers was also down, while the average revenue per user was up 62 percent, as the company became more aggressive in getting rid of cheaters, it said.

The company said that it expects revenues of between 417 million yuan and 434 million yuan in the current quarter, nearly flat with the first quarter. It also said it would delay some in-game promotions and monetization activities in the quarter to "nurture the games and grow user base," it said.

Perfect World shares fell 35 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $17.67 in Monday morning trading after rising as high as $19.49 earlier in the session.