Playtika raised almost $2 billion in a day after the IPO

Mobile publisher Playtika held an IPO. As a result of the initial public offering, the company managed to sell almost 70 million shares and raise $1.88 billion.Initially, the shares of the Israeli publisher were estimated at $22-24 apiece.

However, during trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, the company sold 69.5 million shares at a price of $27 apiece.

Of these, 18.5 million shares were issued by Playtika and another 51 million were sold by the existing shareholder of Playtika Holding UK II Limited. It is reported that the company will receive money only for the shares issued to it.

Playtika will spend the raised funds on various corporate expenses, payment of potential collateral, as well as future investments and the acquisition of new studios.

For the first time, an Israeli publisher announced its intention to enter an IPO in 2019. This happened shortly after several attempts by the Chinese Giant Network Group to buy Playtika (the deal was not approved by regulators).

The company filed an IPO application in October last year. Playtika planned to raise $1.67 billion with a total valuation of $10 billion, but after the first auction, the publisher managed to exceed its own forecasts.

Last year, Playtika reported revenue of $2.3 billion for 12 months. At the same time, it became known that the company’s debt also amounts to $2.3 billion. Probably, part of the funds raised through the IPO will go, among other things, to its repayment.