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Social developer Huuuge moves ahead with Polish IPO

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Free-to-play games developer and publisher Huuuge will move ahead with plans for a Polish stock exchange listing, and is looking to raise $150m through its initial public offering (IPO).
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As reported in September 2020, the developer intends to apply for listing and admission of the company’s shares on the main market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Huuuge expects that gross proceeds from the issuance of new shares will amount to approximately $150m (£110.8m/€124.3m), with net proceeds used primarily to fund growth initiatives such as acquisitions and investments.

It is the company’s intention to create a sizeable free float, it said, of around 25% in order to ensure adequate aftermarket liquidity and meet the requirements set out by the listing rules.

The offering will be made available to retail and institutional investors in Poland, and to certain international investors, in accordance with the Polish Financial Supervision Authority’s regulations.

“As we expand our Huuuge Network and further roll out our diversified gaming portfolio, we see an immense opportunity to leverage the components powering the success of our key franchises, achieving strong scale advantages across our games and benefiting from the network effects of Huuuge’s business model,” said chief executive Anton Gauffin.

“This means that we continue building and developing our free-to-play mobile game offering while pursuing further growth and scale via our buy strategy; publishing and acquiring complementary products and businesses.”

“The IPO that we have announced today is a major milestone for the xompany that transforms Huuuge and supports our strategy, giving us additional resources and readiness to move forward with its implementation.”

Mobile gaming, including smartphone and tablet games, constitutes 45% of the global games market, and is the market’s fastest developing sector, according to the developer.

Huuuge also said it is one of the fastest-growing mobile developers, with an increase in consolidated revenue from $152.1m in 2017, to $259.4m in 2019.

Consolidated adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the same period increased from a $4.3m loss to a $24.8m profit. EBITDA margin increased from -2.9% to 9.6%.

For the nine months ending 30 September 2020, the developer saw consolidated revenue increase 30% year-on-year to $243.5m.

Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased from $9.3m to $54.2m, corresponding to a margin of 22.3%.

Huuuge first announced its plans to launch an initial public offering in September 2020. At that time, it had submitted its proposal to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority for approval.

Chief executive Gauffin said that the developer was looking to its next growth phase, and that the IPO would be a possible part of this strategy.

He said the company also continued to develop its pipeline of new games and realise consolidation opportunities, such as the acquisition of Playable Platform in the Netherlands and Double Star in Finland.

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