Winking Studios makes AIM debut after raising £7.9m in dual listing

Winking Studios (WKS) Follow | WKS, a Singapore-based video game services company, has floated on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, with trading commencing at 8:00 AM London time on November 14, 2024 under ticker WKS. Winking is also listed on the SGX Catalist board.

The listing successfully raised £7.9m by way of a placing supported by WKS' majority shareholder Acer Gaming and top executives. Based on the placing price of 15p, WKS' market cap is approximately £66m. Winking's nominated advisor is Strand Hanson, with SP Angel Corporate Finance acting as broker.

Winking is a major game development and art outsourcing company with a strong presence in Asia. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Singapore, it has 9 offices across Asia and is ranked 3rd in Asia and 4th in the world in terms of revenue in the the game art outsourcing market. Winking has worked with 22 of the world's top game developers, including Ubisoft, EA, Activision and Tencent, on AAA titles such as FIFA, Call of Duty and Assassins Creed.

Winking's Art Outsourcing Services arm develops art, animation and VFX, including characters, environments, props and effects, whereas its Game Development arm delivers development services, including concept, programming, script writing, post-release support and maintenance.

Johnny Jan, Founder and CEO, commenting: "Dual Listing on AIM is a significant milestone in our 20-year history and I believe will serve as a powerful catalyst in our mission to become a global leader in video game art services. A London listing opens up a wealth of new opportunities, granting us access to a large pool of technology investors well-informed on the sector while enhancing our ability to expand our footprint and grow our client base across Europe and the Americas."

View from Vox

Winking Studios concludes a successful float on AIM, backed by Taiwan's computer hardware giant Acer, that raised £8m in a placing at 15p. The IPO gave the company a £66.1m market cap prior to start of trading at 8 AM on Thursday, November 14 2024. Acer owned 62.6% of Winking prior to the IPO, which increased to 64.2% after. Winking is now dual listed on AIM and the Catalist board of the SGX, bolstering its aggressive global expansion strategy.

Acer's increased investment is further testament to the potential of the company to continue growing its high-margin services within a rapidly expanding sector, particularly in mobile. Winking has a strong existing blue-chip customer base, including established partnerships with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Offering substantial cost savings, art outsourcing continues to claim a larger portion of game development budgets, where Winking is ahead of the curve.

A benefit of its "work-for-hire" business model is that WKS is not exposed as principal to risks associated with ownership and development of games. To further mitigate risk, the group is expanding geographically as well as consolidating smaller developers, having competed 2 acquisitions in H1 2024, and currently evaluating a pipeline of targets.

Over the past 4 years, Winking has shown strong organic growth, doubling its headcount to 800+ and growing revenues to US$29.3m and adjusted EBITDA to US$5.3m as of FY23. There is good forward earnings visibility from growing follow-on revenues as WKS has focused on multi-year, high-growth mobile/online titles, yielding recurring revenues with good visibility over 18+ months indicative bookings. Acer's extensive network of relationships in the industry is an additional benefit to growth.

The proceeds raised in the placing will supplement Winking's existing US$30m cash resource, which has been allocated to pursuing more M&A, alliances, and JVs in Asia and Europe, as well as growing WKS' customer base in North America and Europe via enhanced marketing, business development, AI investments, and setting up a new UK-based hub.

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