March 9 (Reuters) - Australia's Aristocrat Leisure (ALL) said...

March 9 (Reuters) - Australia's Aristocrat Leisure (ALL) said on Wednesday it would suspend mobile gaming operations in Russia over the country's invasion of Ukraine, although the gambling machine maker does not expect it to materially impact its earnings.

It joins dozens of companies, including energy giants Shell SHEL.L and Exxon Mobil XOM.N as well as Australian refiner Viva Energy (VEA) , in suspending, shutting down or limiting business activities in Russia.

Aristocrat said https://ir.aristocrat.com/static-files/5770be77-cca4-4630-90b0-148b3b36ed12 it was "currently not viable" to operate in Russia. It has historically received about 3% of total annualized bookings on its free-to-play mobile gaming platform Pixel United from the country.

Pixel United, formerly called Aristocrat Digital, logged bookings of A$1.84 billion ($1.34 billion) in fiscal 2021 https://ir.aristocrat.com/static-files/bfa4c2c1-70d4-421b-8471-10574b8f5639, and contributed 39% to Aristocrat's total revenue of A$4.74 billion.

The gaming firm also said it has assisted over two-thirds of its workforce of nearly 1,000 people at Pixel United's Ukraine office in relocating internationally or to safer locations within the country. It added that it was exploring "strategic options" for its Russia-based employees.

"The business is leveraging its broad network of studios and operations across Europe, U.S and Israel, and its combined global capabilities, to put in place effective mitigations and uphold business continuity," the Sydney-based company said.

($1 = 1.3753 Australian dollars)