Israeli mobile gaming company Playtika has held its initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq. The Herzliya-based company raised nearly $1.9 billion at $27 per share, above the planned range of $22-24 per share.
Playtika said that the offering consisted of 18,518,500 shares of common stock offered by Playtika and 50,981,500 shares of common stock offered by an existing stockholder. Playtika said it will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholder. The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy an additional 10,425,000 shares of common stock from the selling stockholder at the initial public offering price.
Playtika will begin trading today under the PLTK ticker. "Reuters" said that Playtika's IPO was the biggest so far in 2021.
The company said that it was raising the money for general corporate purposes, working capital and capital expenses. Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse acted as lead bookrunners for the IPO with Goldman Sachs, UBS, BofA Securities, Baird, Stifel, Cowen and Wedbush Securities acting as additional bookrunners.
Playtika was founded in 2010 by CEO Robert Antokol and Uri Shahak. It was acquired the following year by US company Caesars Interactive Entertainment for $130 million and acquired from them in 2016 by a Chinese consortium for $4.4 billion. The Chinese consortium remains the controlling shareholder after the IPO.
In the first nine months of 2020, Playtika had revenue of $1.8 billion, up 28.5% from the corresponding period of 2019. 80% of revenue was generated through Apple, Google and Facebook. However, in the first nine months of 2020 net profit shrank 93.8% to $16.1 million due to the $310 million remuneration paid to Antokol in two tranches of locked shares. EBITDA was $666 million, up 41.2%.
The mobile games developer claims to have nearly 30 million monthly active users, and is known for its casino-themed games and apps for poker and solitaire.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 15, 2021
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