Perwyn-backed Sumo floats with £145m market cap

Kenny Wastell
18 December 2017

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Perwyn Private Equity-backed UK video games developer Sumo Digital has priced its IPO on the London stock exchange at 100 pence per share, giving it a market cap of ТЃ145m.

The process comes just 15 months after the GP acquired the business from NorthEdge Capital and will raise a total of £78m.

The flotation consisted of 38.45 million new shares and 39.7 million existing shares, with Perwyn and the company's management team consequently generating £39.7m in returns.

Following the listing, Perwyn and the management team will retain a combined stake of around 43% in the company.

The fresh capital generated from the IPO will be used to deleverage the company and pay for costs associated with the listing, in addition to providing additional working capital.

Zeus Capital acted as nominated adviser, sole bookrunner and sole broker to Sumo in the listing.

Previous funding
NorthEdge backed the management buyout of Sumo from US-based Foundation 9 Entertainment in October 2014, with Barclays providing a debt facility to support the deal.

Perwyn then acquired the company two years later, with NorthEdge generating a 4.4x return on its investment. Financial details of the transaction remained undisclosed, though Perwyn typically invests in companies with enterprise values of £20-75m.

Company
Founded in 2003, Sumo is headquartered in Sheffield with additional offices in Nottingham and Pune, India. The business develops titles including Little Big Planet, Forza Horizon and Sonic & All-Stars Racing for consoles, desktops and mobile devices. Its clients include Sony, Sega and Microsoft.

Sumo has a headcount of 450, up from 350 at the time of Perwyn's initial investment and 240 prior to NorthEdge's acquisition.

People
Perwyn Private Equity – Andrew Wynn (partner).
Sumo Digital – Carl Cavers (CEO).