The American games publisher behind the lockdown hit Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is to float on the London stock market this week with a valuation of about £700 million.
Devolver Digital is aiming to sell £200 million of shares to new investors, with existing backers, including its management team, offloading more than £150 million of stock.
Sony is expected to buy a 5 per cent stake when the company debuts on AIM on Thursday. Devolver is going public as the Covid-inspired clamour for games companies has begun to abate. Shares in some of London’s largest games groups, such as Frontier Developments and Team17, have fallen by between 10 and 20 per cent since January. However, their valuations remain about twice pre-pandemic levels.
Devolver was founded in 2009 by industry veteran Harry Miller, now executive chairman, and a number of business partners. Since its creation the company has released 90 independent titles, including Hotline Miami, Loop Hero and Fall Guys, which attracted a large following during the pandemic.
Miller owns 29 per cent of the company, according to a recent stock exchange filing. The Chinese internet giant NetEase is Devolver’s largest external backer. Management owns just over 50 per cent of the shares and their combined stake will reduce to below 40 per cent in the float.
Advertisement
It employs about 200 people, including 150 in Europe and generated revenues of $94 million in the 12 months to the end of June, with underlying earnings of $25 million. It will use the proceeds of the float for international expansion and takeovers.
Miller said that the company had chosen London as the venue for its float because “60 of us live in the UK and . . . we were also impressed by the level of institutional investor understanding among UK and European funds”.
