Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings

RNS Number : 3877A

Gfinity PLC

22 December 2014

 

22 December 2014

Gfinity plc

("Gfinity" or "the Company")

Admission to AIM and First Day of Dealings

Oversubscribed placing raises £3.5 million

Gfinity, a leading eSports business, is pleased to announce the Admission to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange of its entire issued share capital, and the commencement of dealings, at 8.00 a.m. GMT today under the ticker code GFIN (ISIN number: GB00BT9QD572). Upon Admission, the Company will have 77,845,150 ordinary shares in issue, giving Gfinity a market capitalisation of approximately £13.2 million at the Placing Price.

Highlights

·        The Company has successfully raised £3.5 million before costs and expenses via the placing of 20,588,235 new Ordinary Shares (the "Placing") at a price of 17 pence per share (the "Placing Price").

·        Gfinity organises and hosts eSports tournaments attended by leading international players and teams, and hosts a popular website on which eSports enthusiasts can compete against or view competitors playing a range of hugely popular electronic games such as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), FIFA 2015, StarCraft and League of Legends.

·        The net proceeds of the Placing are intended to be used to pursue the expansion of the business and to support its 2015 event schedule.

·        The Placing and Admission will support the Company in its aim to  create the UK's premier eSports arena and strengthen the position of gfinity.net as the premium hub for gaming news, content and interaction, and will also provide continued marketing spend in order to grow the registered user base.

Arden Partners plc is acting as the Nominated Adviser and Broker to Gfinity and acted as sole book runner for the Placing.

Neville Upton, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gfinity, said: "We are delighted to be joining AIM and reaching another significant milestone for the Company. The listing will not only enhance our credibility and profile but enable us to capitalise on the growth in eSports. As the first UK eSports Company to list on AIM, Gfinity is well placed to take advantage of the rapidly increasing demand for eSports.  We would like to thank our new investors and all those who expressed an interest, and look forward to updating them on our progress as we continue to grow."

Information on Gfinity

Gfinity is a leading UK-based eSports company serving, in co-operation with games publishers, a rapidly-growing community of on-line gamers worldwide. Founded in September 2012, the Company has established a popular on-line brand, gfinity.net, where gamers can compete, socialise and enjoy a wide range of content relating to electronic games on a proprietary technology platform. This platform enables Gfinity to run a regular roster of on-line competitions, leagues and ladders with the opportunity for gamers to enter and potentially win substantial prize money and/or pit their skills against professional and widely-followed ''star'' players.

Gfinity registered users can enter these events and competitions either without charge or on a pay-to-enter basis. In addition Gfinity hosts live tournaments, the most recent of which was G3, an event that attracted 3,830 ticket paying spectators and achieved 8.7 million on-line views over a single weekend.  These events are based around several of the industry's best selling games such as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, FIFA 2015, CS:GO, StarCraft and Halo.

Gfinity has quickly become a widely-recognised "destination" for gamers in the UK and internationally, typically aged 18 - 34 years old. The growing user base - growth in registered user base increased from 43,387 as at 30 June 2014 to approaching 300,000 in December - and the demographic of Gfinity's audience, together with the sheer numbers who view Gfinity's events online, provide brand owners and advertisers with an attractive environment in which to promote their products and services, as well as offering Gfinity the opportunity to generate significant revenues over the long term. 

Copies of the Company's admission document (dated 16 December 2014) are available on the Gfinity website: www.gfinityplc.com  

Enquiries

Gfinity plc
Neville Upton, Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Hall, Finance Director	[phone]
Arden Partners plc - Nominated Adviser and Broker
Chris Hardie, Ciaran Walsh, Michael McNeilly (Corporate Finance) Catherine Miles, Kam Bansil (Corporate Broking)	[phone]
Luther Pendragon - Public Relations
Neil Thapar, Alexis Gore, Oliver Hibberd, Andy Johnson	[phone]

Background Information

Industry overview and market potential

Developments in technology have provided a platform for multiplayer interactive gaming and eSports is a high growth market amongst what is already a significant game playing population. In 2011, Twitch TV launched an online streaming platform, which enabled viewing of live and recorded gaming action. By 2013, Twitch reported that its viewers were watching 12 billion minutes of video streaming per annum on its platform, and Twitch currently has 55 million viewers per month. Other streaming platforms in this market include YouTube, Daily Motion and MLG.

In its Digital Game Brief (April 2014) Super Data Research reported that during 2013:

·     71.5 million people globally viewed eSports during the year; double the total for 2012; and

·     the total prize fund for competitions reached $25 million, an increase of 350 per cent. in just 4 years.

To further illustrate the growing popularity of eSports:

·     the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship in 2013 was attended by 18,000 people in the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. This event sold out in one hour and also achieved32 million on-line views, including a peak concurrent viewership of 8.5m;

·     a 2014 Defence of the Ancients (DotA) event, 'The International', in the USA saw a prize pot of just under $11m, the largest prize fund yet secured for an eSports event; and

·     the League of Legends Season 4 World Championships in 2014 held in South Korea sold out a stadium of over 40,000 spectators.

As if to reflect the move of eSports towards the mainstream, in 2013, the USA started to grant visas to eSports participants, under their visa category reserved for 'internationally recognised athletes.'

Strategy for growth

In the past 12 months, the Company has put in place a number of building blocks from which it intends to expand its business and enhance its revenue earning ability. These include hosting the G3 event, re-launching the website, launching YouTube channels and building the management team.

On 11 December 2014, Gfinity entered into a two-year sales and marketing contract with Pitch International for Pitch to package and sell sponsorship and broadcasting rights on the Company's behalf. Pitch is a leading sports marketing agency and distributor of sports media rights worldwide.

Key strengths and opportunities

The Directors believe that Gfinity has a number of key strengths and future opportunities available which are important to the success of the business:

Reputation and brand recognition

The Directors believe that Gfinity has established a good reputation with professional and recreational gamers in a relatively short period of time. It has achieved this through management's experience of gaming, the infrastructure it provides at events such as the rules and supervision, and through its website. This is demonstrated by the quality of top professional teams, such as Optic Gaming, EnVyUs and Ninjas in Pyjamas who have participated in on-line and off-line events.

Technology Gfinity has invested significant sums in the creation and development of an up-to-date gaming relevant website which has increased users from 43,387 as at 30 June 2014 to approaching 300,000 at the time of Admission. It has also invested in a studio in Kingston at which events can be held and streamed.

Tournament platform The Directors believe that Gfinity has developed a tournament platform that is superior to its competitors, using the experience and know-how of management as well as financial investment.

Strong management team - experienced commercially and in gaming

Gfinity's management team contains a blend of people with strong commercial experience and those with a deep insight in gaming. Chief Executive and co-founder Neville Upton set up his previous business, The Listening Company, and grew it to a turnover of over £80m prior to its sale to Serco.

Brand Ambassadors

The Directors believe that having popular YouTubers as brand ambassadors for Gfinity brings additional credibility to the Company within the gaming community and with potential sponsors. Gfinity collaborates in particular with KSI and Ali-A, who have over 7.5 million and over 5 million subscribers respectively on YouTube.

Relationships with publishers of games

Gfinity has run events encompassing a broad range of games rather than being tied to a particular publisher. The Directors believe that Gfinity has established credibility with publishers by successfully delivering events over a broad range of games. These relationships mean that Gfinity is not reliant on any single publisher.

Board of Directors

Tony Collyer, Non-Executive Chairman

Tony is a qualified Chartered Accountant with broad commercial experience and finance director experience in three public companies: Allders plc, New Look Group plc and The Corporate Services Group plc.

Neville Upton, Chief Executive Officer

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Neville joined Euromoney where he gained experience in Finance and M&A. In 1998 he established a call centre business, The Listening Company, which was sold in 2011 to Serco for a sum in excess of £50 million at which time it had a turnover of £82 million and employed 4,000 people. Neville co-founded the Company in 2012 and is the largest shareholder in the Company.

Jonathan Hall, Finance Director

Jon qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen followed by a period of 6.5 years with PA Consulting, a management consultancy, specialising in organisation and business process design. He subsequently spent 5 years as a finance director of Saracens Ltd and the wider Premier Team Holdings Group, before joining Gfinity in August 2014.

Ginette Jarman, Operations Director

Ginette was a key member of the management team at The Listening Company. She has responsibility for the operational delivery of Gfinity events and management of special projects. She was the founding director of the Company and thus has been closely involved in the early development of the business since inception.

Paul Kent, Technology and eSports Director

Paul has been involved in eSports since 1996, as both a top level gamer and team owner. He established the Warped Gaming League in 2009, which grew to be the UK's largest Xbox Live on-line league. Paul spent 10 years as a software engineer with Creative Labs. He has responsibility for web and production technology and also for setting the rules and tournament structures for all Gfinity competitions.

Philip Shuldham-Legh, Marketing Director

Philip was Group Sales and Marketing Director for Neville Upton at The Listening Company until it was acquired by Serco in March 2011. In Serco he moved to Business Development Director until he joined Gfinity as Marketing Director in January 2013. Phillip divides his time between this role and being Strategy Director at Voice Marketing Ltd.

David Yarnton, Non-Executive Director

David has 18 years' experience of the games industry first in Australia followed by 9 years as Managing Director of Nintendo UK. He is a member of the UK Interactive Entertainment Association, an organisation in which he was a Board Member and Vice-Chairman for 7 years.

 

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