Game Development Company Nexters Makes Its Debut On NASDAQ

Game development company Nexters, in a business combination with Kismet – a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), has started trading Nexters shares on Friday. The two companies revealed the debut on Friday, and according to what Kismet said, the quite unusual deal was the first of its kind between a European company and a Russian Special Purpose Acquisition Company listing shares in the United States.

Although the video game company has its headquarters in Limassol, Cyprus, it was started by Russian founders. Founders Andrey Fadeev; Boris Gertsovsky started Nexters in 2014, about four years of the first meeting. They had independently been working in the gaming industry and had developed several successful games. After starting their company in 2014, they established their headquarters in Cyprus and released Hero Wars which became a global hit. In 2020, Nexters generated $318 million in bookings and $120 million in free cash flow to equity. According to statistics derived from Wikipedia, 35% of the company’s net bookings came from the United States, 23% from Europe, and 19% from Asia. Its flagship product, Hero Wars RPG, was downloaded 36 million times in 2020 on Android and iOS, and as of 2020 the total number of installs that the company has had was more than 100 million.

Kismet, on the other hand, was founded by Ivan Tavrin – a former CEO of Megafone. Kismet had its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ in August of 2020 and raised $250 million with which it invests in telecoms, technology, consumer goods, and services.

The agreement between Cyprus-based Nexters and Russian Kismet Acquisition One Corp came into fruition early this year with Nexters acquiring the funds that it needed to go on with its NASDAQ listing in July.

According to what a statement by Nexters read, the company’s ordinary shares will be traded under the ticker “GDEV” while its warrants will be traded under the ticker “GDEVW”.

Nexters has plans of consolidating its position in the gaming industry with new products and the funds raised from the deal with Kismet. The deal with Kismet entails receiving $132 million in Cash from Kismet trust account, Kismet Sponsor Limited, and also from PIPE investors VPE Capital and Mubadala Investment Company. According to Nexters, it received $50 million from Kismet and another joint $50 million from VPE Capital and Mubadala Investment Co which gave the company the prerogative to list on NASDAQ; there is a $100 million minimum requirement to be able to list on NASDAQ.

The video gaming company recorded a 48 percent YoY revenue increase in the first quarter.