Cirsa share price levels at €15 after Spanish stock market debut
Cirsa’s share price reached a high of €15.76 on its first day of listing, before levelling out at the €15 it expected prior to the IPO.
It commenced trading on Spanish stock exchanges on Wednesday, with an expected market valuation of around €2.5 billion.
After months of speculation, in June Cirsa announced its intention to proceed with an IPO. On Wednesday it issued 26,666,667 new shares expecting to raise €400 million ($469.2 million).
Its offering price was set at €15 a share, which was around where the share price settled towards the market’s close on Wednesday.
Previously owned by Blackstone, the Spanish operator opened its second day of trading at €15.15 a share.
What is Cirsa hoping to achieve with its IPO?
A secondary offering was launched for current and former employees – this comprised 3,552,113 existing shares, worth around €53 million.
Additionally, an over-allotment option will be issued to the stabilisation manager, Morgan Stanley Europe, allowing the purchase of up to 4,532,817 extra shares within 30 days of the start of trading.
With a total maximum offer size of 34,751,597 shares worth €521 million in total, Cirsa hopes the equity raise will help accelerate its already aggressive M&A strategy which has seen it complete over 130 acquisitions since 2015.
These acquisitions have led to entries into new markets like Portugal and Peru in the last couple of years. Cirsa now maintains a presence in 11 markets, predominantly in Spanish-speaking nations.
Between 2025 and 2027, Cirsa hopes to boost its M&A investment capacity with an organic cash flow generation of €400 million to €500 million.
At the time the IPO intention was announced, CEO Antonio Hostench said: “Today, we are taking a defining step to continue writing another page in this extraordinary history of growth by announcing our intention to go public, which will provide us with the opportunity to undertake new projects and continue to consolidate our leadership in the sector.”
Why has Cirsa’s M&A strategy been so successful?
Cirsa said in its IPO prospectus it had grown its EBITDA for 67 consecutive quarters, excluding those affected by Covid-19.
In the first quarter of 2025, Cirsa reported net operating revenue of €576.7 million, marking a 12.5% increase compared to the same period last year.
Private equity protection
Having been acquired by Blackstone in 2018, Cirsa remained within the private equity giant’s gaming portfolio throughout Covid and into 2025.
Private equity has become a more common investment option for gaming companies in recent years. Superbet, Tipico and Lottomatica have all been PE-owned in recent years. Blackstone, CVC and Apollo Global Management have all dominated gaming deals, including Apollo acquiring suppliers IGT and Everi Holdings in 2024 via a $6.3bn deal.
M&A expert Christian Tirabassi says this private-equity ownership has allowed the company to capitalise on opportunities for acquisitions.
Tirabassi, founder and senior partner at M&A advisory firm Ficom Leisure, tells iGB: “What Cirsa has been doing is consolidating its position in the Spanish-speaking countries and also integrating all the channels.
“Led by private equity, you can go out, integrate, create synergy, a larger company present in all the gaming channel distribution, so both land-based and online, and in all the countries where you have synergy, which is basically your Spanish-speaking countries.”