Placing in Codemasters to support acquisition of Slightly Mad Studios
We are pleased to announce that Liberum acted as Joint Bookrunner on a Placing in Codemasters Group Holdings plc. The Company placed 9,523,809 ordinary shares at a placing price of 210 pence (mid-market screen price), raising gross proceeds of £20 million. The net proceeds of the Placing were used to fund the initial cash element of the up front consideration payable in acquiring Slightly Mad Studios (“SMS”).
SMS is an award winning multi-platform video game developer renowned for developing critically acclaimed and commercially successful racing franchises and games including Project CARS and Need For Speed™ Shift.
Codemasters will pay $30 million up front for SMS, with earn-out consideration of up to a further $166 million to be satisfied in a mix of cash and Ordinary Shares, to be paid based on the achievement of certain milestones and earn-out performance targets over the calendar years 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The placing was oversubscribed and received significant support from existing shareholders. The share price traded at a c.10% premium to the placing price in the immediate aftermarket.
Codemasters is an award-winning British video game developer and publisher specialising in high quality racing games, including DiRT, GRID and F1.
Liberum Team
Investment Banking – Neil Patel, Cameron Duncan, Ed Phillips, Will Hall, Ant Schia
Sales – Julian Collett, Seb Fernandez, Oliver Baxendale, Alistair Smallwood, Nicholas Lee
Research – Andy Bryant, Olivia Honychurch
Legal – Rebecca Gordon, Alice Foster
