Lara Croft profit mission for SCi

JANE Cavanagh, dubbed the Lara Croft of the British computer games industry after the swoop of her SCi Entertainment on ailing rival Eidos, says she will return her acquisition to profit within a year.

SCi last month paid £100m for Eidos, the onetime star of the sector. The deal meant the fabled Lara Croft figure from the Tomb Raider series plus Eidos's Championship Manager football game joined SCi's stable famed for its guns and bullets themes.

Cavanagh today unveiled plans to trade on the legacy of Eidos, which fell into trouble when expanding too quickly after the success of Tomb Raider. 'Our strategy to restore Eidos to profitability is under way and we are confident this will be achieved in the year ending June 2006,' she said.

Plans include branding all products under the Eidos name to trade on brand strength in the US. It will retain Eidos's San Francisco operations and, while the corporate name will remain SCi, the group is to switch to Eidos's end-June financial year.

SCi today reported losses of £3.8m for the six months to the end of March against a loss of £100,000 in the comparable period a year ago.