It’s always heartening to see UK software companies develop so the announcement of the Frontier Developments IPO was very welcome. The video games development company, who was founded in 1982 and has studios in Cambridge UK and Halifax Canada, chose to list on AIM and trading is expected to start on July 15 2013. The company raised £4m through a share placing arranged by Canaccord Genuity and will enter with market capitalisation of £39.4m. The company raised £2.8m in pre-IPO fundraising, is debt free and has £7.2m cash.
Although games software is not a sector we cover, the IPO of a UK company always piques our attention. Another point of interest is Frontier’s commitment to cross platform software development, based on its Cobra technology platform which spans PCs, tablets, smartphones and videogame consoles. Multi-platform capabilities and digital distribution are growth areas – the only question is how long the PC platform will remain an area of opportunity.