Israel-based Playtika, developer of mobile games including many social casino titles, has launched an initial public offering which could help it raise $1.67 billion.
In 2016, a group of Chinese investors including Giant Network Group Co Ltd and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm founded by Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma, acquired Playtika from Caesars Interactive Entertainment for $4.4 billion.
The estimated price of the 69.5 million shares is between $22 and $24 and the potential $1.67 billion IPO could value the company at $10 billion. Net proceeds from Playtika’s IPO will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses, capital expenditures, and the potential repayment of borrowings under Term Loan, according to SeekingAlpha. The company is also considering using some proceeds for investments and acquisitions.
Shut-in gamers have boosted mobile game developers’ revenue in 2020. Playtika posted an all-time high of 11.8 million average daily players of its games in Q2 2020. SciPlay, the social gaming spinoff of Scientific Games, posted record revenues in 2020 and made its IPO in 2019 raising over $400 million.
Playtika has a Las Vegas office which currently has 139 job openings listed on LinkedIn. In addition to the officially licensed Caesars Palace social casino, Playtika develops and publishes the official World Series of Poker mobile app.
A social casino app is an app with casino-style games such as slots, where players play by purchasing virtual coins that cannot be cashed out.
