Manchester investment bank plays leading role in listing of video game firm

Phil Adams of GCA Altium

Manchester based investment bank GCA Altium has advised video games label Team17 on the completion of its initial public offering.

The firm has listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and undergone a £107.5m fundraising.

On admission, Team17 had a market capitalisation of £217m.

The listing is the second recent IPO led by GCA Altium following the £171m flotation of lifestyle fashion retailer Footasylum.

The investment bank has a track record in the digital and gaming sector having previously advised on transactions involving Zynga, boohoo and Tidal.

A global developer and publisher of independent, premium video games, Team17 was founded in 1990 and has released over 90 games, including the highly successful Worms franchise.

Led by chief executive Debbie Bestwick, the Wakefield firm posted revenues of £29.6m in 2017 having more than doubled income since 2015.

The Team17 float is the latest development in the fast growing UK games industry. Overall, the combined UK physical and digital sales of video games hit a record £3.5bn last year, an increase of 9.6 per cent.

Digital games sales grew 12 per cent to £2.6bn. According to the games industry trade body Ukie, there were 2,175 active games companies in the UK last summer.

The value of the UK games market is almost equal to that of the music and video markets combined – £1.1bn and £2.5bn respectively – despite the rise in popularity of digital services such as Spotify, Netflix and Amazon.

The GCA Altium team was led by chief executive Phil Adams, and included Adrian Reed, Paul Lines, Jon Stead, Matthew Furness and Hamzah Shakoor, all based in the firm’s Manchester office.

Phil Adams said: “Team17 has a truly impressive growth story, with a clear point of difference in the market. The group has demonstrated the ability to innovate, with the successful development of its games label model together with its own IP resulting in considerable revenue growth.

“The UK games industry is growing at a significant rate, with digital games hitting a record £1.6bn sales last year. Team17 is well positioned as a premium label and developer in the indie gaming market and we are sure will continue to prosper as a public company.”
Debbie Bestwick said: “We are delighted to have received such strong support from investors. Our listing on AIM represents a major endorsement of both our business and our people and we believe that our quoted status provides an ideal platform from which to accelerate our growth ambitions.

“We have established a truly exceptional team and our vast expertise within the gaming sector has enabled us to create a market-leading offering.
“ We are excited by the benefits of being a quoted company and we look forward to further developing our business over the coming years.”

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