We don’t feel the need to move to main market, says Keywords chief
KEYWORDS Studios, a service provider in the video game industry, says it doesn’t feel a need to move to the main stock market in London, or to be listed on the Nasdaq.
The Nasdaq is where many of the world’s biggest technology companies can be found, including giants Apple and Facebook.
The Dublin-based company has gone from reporting revenues of €16m in 2013, when it listed on AIM, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, to €326.5m in 2019.
“I think in the end, it’s just, it’s working for us, it’s working for us very well. We don’t necessarily want to complicate it by having multiple listings,” Andrew Day, chief executive of Keywords, told the Irish Independent.
“We don’t feel a burning need to move to the main market… our listing is liquid enough on AIM, and we have the biggest investors on the planet investing in Keywords. So it’s clearly not a barrier to them the fact that we’re on AIM,” he added.
When it carried out its initial public offering, Keywords chose to list in London because it “intended to be quite fast-growing, and London seemed to be most sort of liquid – the AIM market was pretty good”.
“There was a window of opportunity for us to float there,” Mr Day said.
In May 2020, Keywords raised £100m (€112m) to fund further acquisitions.
While Dublin is no longer the company’s biggest location, it remains home to the company’s central functions, including its legal team, treasury, finance department and global HR.
“It is where a lot of our heart is,” Mr Day said.
Last week the company appointed Sonia Lashand Sedler, an executive from Diebold Nixdorf, as its new chief operating officer.
Ms Lashand Sedler will work closely with Mr Day and the group’s chief financial officer, Jon Hauck. She will take responsibility for the day-today operational running of the business, according to a statement from Keywords.
This will enable Mr Day to focus “more fully on the continued strategic development of the group”, the company said.
Established in 1998, Keywords now has 65 facilities in 21 countries.
‘We have the biggest investors on the planet investing in us’