SoftBank-backed Kahoot plans $7 billion Oslo listing in coming weeks: sources

  • 2/10/2021
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LONDON (Reuters) - SoftBank-backed online education firm Kahoot is planning to launch a main market listing on the Oslo bourse in the coming weeks, with the company valuation pegged at $7 billion, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Kahoot has appointed Goldman Sachs, ABG Sundal Collier and Arctic Securities to manage the listing, the sources said, and is expected to launch the deal later this month, as demand for e-learning booms during the pandemic. The company currently has a listing on Oslo’s Euronext Growth junior bourse, and has said it is preparing to switch to the main market in the first quarter of this year, where it is likely to be eligible for index inclusion because of its size. Kahoot could sell up to 67 million new shares in the so-called re-IPO, one of the people said, adding no final decision had been made on the share offering. Kahoot and the banks declined to comment on the specifics of the main market listing. The company completed a $215 million funding round in October last year, with Japan’s SoftBank investing the money, and saw its share price rise sharply afterwards. The stock is now up 144% since that investment. One of the sources said that the company’s full-year results reported earlier on Wednesday allows it to go ahead with the listing, especially after recording 247% growth in invoiced revenues to $45 million in 2020. For 2021, Kahoot is targeting $90-100 million in invoiced revenues with solid positive cash flow from operations and one million paid subscriptions. Apart from SoftBank, the company also counts Datum Group, Glitrafjord and Bank, New York Mellon and Creandum among its major shareholders. A number of tech companies have plans to IPO later this year. Auto1 in Germany and Moonpig in the UK have already completed listings. In addition, Deliveroo and Darktrace in London, WeTransfer in Amsterdam and Trustly in Stockholm have IPO aspirations, boosted by increasing investor appetite for tech growth stocks in an uncertain economic environment.

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