Rovio Entertainment, the maker of the wildly successful mobile game Angry Birds, has announced the pricing for its initial public offering (IPO). The company priced at the high end of its expected range on Thursday (€11.50 per share), giving it a market value of roughly $1.06 billion.
It is worth pointing out that Rovio will not debut in the United States. Instead, the company will sell its shares on the Helsinki exchange. The company plans to enter the market Friday.
The underwriters for the offering are Carnegie Bank, Danske Bank and Deutsche Bank.
Rovio has put out multiple iterations of Angry Birds, among other games that have been downloaded over a 3.7 billion times. The firm’s biggest success is Angry Birds 2, a follow-up to the original title, which was the best-earning app in Apple’s U.S. store in 2010.
The “Angry Birds” feature film grossed roughly $350 million worldwide and a sequel is planned for release in September 2019.
Many are saying that the announcement of this IPO is a turning point for the company that has struggled financially since it released the original mobile game back in 2009.
Recently Rovio reported its fiscal second-quarter financial results, posting revenue growth of 94% to a total of €86.2 million (about $102.8 million), with its games business increasing sales 65% to €61.3 million. According to Bloomberg, the firm is benefiting from a new strategy that places more focus on in-game purchasing and advertising instead of paid downloads.
The company intends to use the proceeds from the offering to further fund its “Angry Birds Movie 2.” The remainder is expected to be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.
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