SINGAPORE – Gaming-related company Winking Studios is planning to raise $8 million through an initial public offering on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) Catalist board, it announced on Wednesday.
The Singapore-headquartered company will do so by issuing 40 million shares at 20 cents apiece, comprising 27.2 million placement shares, with the remaining shares issued through a cornerstone investment by Acer Gaming, and Acer’s chairman and chief executive Jason Chen.
Mr Chen is the majority shareholder of Acer Gaming, which has a majority shareholding in Winking Studios.
The company will have a total of 279,698,275 shares post-IPO, bringing its total market capitalisation to approximately $55.9 million, according to its prospectus lodged on SGX.
Winking Studios is a game-art outsourcing studio, with operations largely in China and Taiwan.
It provides complete end-to-end art outsourcing and game development services across platforms such as consoles, PCs and handheld devices for the video game industry.
The company said it intends to use $5.1 million of the proceeds to establish overseas subsidiaries and offices in Asia, and to increase its business development and marketing efforts in the United States and Europe.
It also plans to pursue strategic acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances to grow its market share, possibly expand into new businesses and to explore the use of artificial intelligence to improve and expand its art-outsourcing capabilities.
In the financial year ended December 2022, the group generated revenue of US$24.5 million (S$33.6 million), up from US$23.7 million the year before.
Net profit, however, fell to US$1 million, from US$3.1 million over the same period.
The company attributed this to fewer projects being contracted and completed in financial year 2022; this followed the Chinese government’s temporary suspension of the issue of new publication licences to game developers in late 2021.
The company’s business has recovered some of its momentum since the lifting of the suspension, it added.
In the first quarter of 2023, revenue reached US$6.4 million, and net profit US$600,000.
An independent market report ranked the company as Asia’s third-largest game-art outsourcing studio, and the fourth-largest globally, based on global revenue derived from game-art outsourcing in 2022.
“Barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect the industry’s growth trajectory to be in line with the independent market report,” said Mr Johnny Jan, chief executive and chairman of Winking Studios.
The placement will open on Thursday, and close at noon on Nov 16. The listing and trading of Winking Studios shares is expected to commence at the opening bell on Nov 20.
The company is the sixth to list on the SGX in 2023, following the Catalist listings of Ever Glory United, Pasture Holdings, YKGI, Sheffield Green and Niks Professional. THE BUSINESS TIMES
