Developer’s shares jump on first day of trading

Codemasters, the video game developer which specialises in racing games, accelerated off the starting grid on its first day as a public company.

Its share price closed up 33%, at 265p, after floating on the Alternative Investment Market.

The business, which is headquartered in Southam, Warwickshire, had been owned by Indian group Reliance Big Entertainment. Reliance sold a £160m stake in the company while management took £10m as part of the listing.

Codemasters, which was founded by David Darling and his brother Richard in 1986, is one of the oldest British game studios.

The group, which originally made games for the Commodore PC and Spectrum console, has around 500 full time employees and also has operations in Birmingham, Runcorn in Cheshire, and an overseas location in Kuala Lumpur, which is an art production facility.

It followed Team 17, the Nottinghamshire-based developer of the Worms video game, which floated a week earlier. It also saw its share price rise quickly, jumping 35% on the first day to 224p, then maintaining that level in the days following.