Winvia Entertainment enjoyed a strong start to life as a publicly-listed company as its shares gained more than 6 per cent in their first day of trading on London’s AIM market on Monday.
The company placed 20,512,820 shares at 195 pence per share in an oversubscribed IPO that raised £40 million, giving it a market capitalisation on admission of £205 million.
The net proceeds of the placing will be used to fund acquisitions in the UK prize draw sector, with the group currently in discussions with several potential acquisition targets.
“Today’s admission to AIM marks a major step for Winvia Entertainment,” said CEO Mihai Manoila. “We’ve built a highly profitable, technology driven business across two fast-growing markets, UK prize draws and regulated online gaming, and we see considerable scope to accelerate our growth strategy in the UK prize draw market through organic and inorganic opportunities.
“We were delighted by the strength of investor demand for the placing which resulted in it being substantially oversubscribed and reflects confidence in what we’ve achieved so far and in the scale of the opportunity ahead. I’d like to thank our team and other stakeholders for their commitment throughout this process as we now focus on delivering the next phase of growth as a listed company.”
Majority owned by Playtech founder Teddy Sagi, Winvia is the second largest prize draw operator in the UK by market share and owns the Best of the Best and Click Competitions brands, where players can play for prizes including cars, luxury watches and holidays.
Outside the UK, the company has a strong presence in the regulated Romanian iGaming market, operating a multi-brand strategy via brands such as Princess Casino, Royal Slots and Luck, alongside white label brands such as Magnumbet, Cashpot and Excelbet, and a majority owned poker business.
Shore Capital acted as Nomad, Sole Bookrunner and Sole Broker in relation to the admission and placing, and is acting as Nomad and Sole Broker to the company following admission.
International law firm Osborne Clarke advised Shore Capital on the IPO and associated institutional placing.
“We are delighted to have assisted the Shore Capital team in relation to the IPO of Winvia Entertainment,” said Osborne Clarke associate director Ed Nisbet. “Both the UK and Romanian markets that the group is focused on offer exciting opportunities and this IPO perfectly positions Winvia to build on its existing strength to take advantage of these.
“This transaction, together with general market activity and our increasing pipeline of opportunities, is also demonstrative of the increased momentum in UK capital markets.”
Winvia was established in 2024 when Crowd Entertainment and its subsidiaries were brought together with the company and renamed Winvia Entertainment.
Shares in Winvia Entertainment plc (LSE:WVIA) closed 6.1 per cent higher at 217.50 pence per share in London Monday after opening at 205.00 pence per share.