Nasdaq Nordic on access to capital and visibility for games companies

[Music] [Music] so hello everyone my name is IRA Watson and I come from Nasik Nordic we have a Nordic IPO team there are being within the company over 12 years so I mean I've socialized but my back irani said I'm a I have math in science in engineering so very weird position work with the financial institutions but then I also know the struggle and pain of the startup company because I'm a co-founder to a brewery but that's enough that's a hobby and I think my my biggest challenge here is today to convince that you don't have to go to London if you

are looking for big money after previous to presenter was telling this our must slide about Nasdaq so you probably know the nest egg it's all about instead listings and trading of stocks but we are also one of the biggest market technology technology providers to other exchanges oh 80 exchanges over the world are run by Nasdaq technology so we are finding the company and then there are indices market data anything that's moving in our systems is also sold out and we have offices almost on every continent and the biggest one the European headquarters is in Stockholm and here in the Nordics we have exchanges in Stockholm Helsinki Copenhagen and Iceland and then also the little falling exchanges in Estonia

Latvia and Lithuania are below are belonging to the Nasdaq family and then of course it changes in in us the big ones and we have about 900 companies listed here and almost 300 are on our growth market called first north so May market that's where the big fisheries are and then we have the growth market that is really pulling companies all the world nowadays and here's the secret last year we were number one a number of listings and capital raised in us in Europe it was the first time we were able to beat London and that's that's a big thing and that has really driven companies from all the continents to us where we have had our UK companies listed on our venues and there are other companies queuing queuing to get entered the markets via our listing venues so 80

to 64 65 7 yeah number one and also capital race it was almost 8 billion euros companies were raising money last year and we had here in the Northeast two biggest IPOs in the in Europe last year they were John energy and nets in in Denmark and this year we have continued the good growth we are still number one in number of new our peers and what does it mean now we have had 75 new companies entering our markets and Stockholm is actually on the Traverse seat they are doing a remarkable job 46 companies have got listed to the first north the growth market and then 18 new companies to the two main market and already we have raised to 2 billion euros

people are asking how long does it last I mean we see that the pipeline is very strong but you never know something might happen on a bigger scale and then the IPO window closes down but now I said ACB oh no our partners is saying the window is really open wide open but it's it's really difficult to forecast what is the future and why Nordics is so powerful nowadays it's really that the IPO market is strong there are investors of all all size groups so they are very have very active retail investor base then there are different family offices other kinds of investors and then also the big pension money is active on the market then on the other hand our exchange these are very international there are lots of international

investors hooked whether with the trading system and they are in many cases their own maturity of the larger companies shares and then on the other hand also state is supporting listings or status reporting investments to to shares then we have the market knowledge there are advisors who know what they do they can advise the companies they are supporting them on different phases of their of their path and then also the infrastructure supports listings so the whole circle is we're going well going fast but in a good manner and this is what happened finally in March 2017 along the years I think I've been looking at the gaming sector for two three years and for example two years ago I was attending first time this price finished game developers price of war award ceremony or something here in

Helsinki and when I introduced myself to some of the gaming company people they were ok and left the place just like that they heard where I come from and they didn't want to continue discussions but I think this made it was totally different after next games listing there were people almost anything after where is she where is she we want to know more about the IPO possibility so it you just need a pioneer to open the game it's like on a velodrome they are the cyclists they're going around and you need the one who takes it takes the leap so this one although this fast facts are some are not shown but next games they they raced 33 million euros their IPO price for 7.9 euros and last Friday they were traded on 15 euros so the market cap is now over two hundred and something two hundred and forty million euros so it's

really going up and this was like a game-changer here here in the in Finland and and here the other gaming companies we have listed on gnostic Nordic exchanges so Paradox Interactive is the biggest one THQ Nordic Jeevitha entertainment star breeze next games the bar should be a bit longer remedy got listed in June another end of May still from nitro games is also from Finland they got listed in Sweden in first no Stockholm and then came in hopes so this year we have got already three fillies origin companies getting listed and then now in the pipeline we have row via their share issue is now actually open and stocks are available for investors and this is one craft that of course motivates companies to get listed you

get a good valuation for your company but then on the other hand the share price development has to be very encouraging in most of the cases here's a case paradox they got listed in in Sweden last year in June and company has stated couple of motifs why they entered the public market they didn't need the money at that time but the primary aim was really to have to share their success with other with others I mean their customers fans employees and when they had their IPO they actually research certain part of the shares just for their fans so that the players and enthusiastic fans would would get access to the Paradox Interactive shares and of course access to to the capital markets and possibility to share and use their own stock whenever they make acquisitions or

go shopping around improve visibility you are there you are seeing an hurt you are not just one company along the others to get a valuation for your company and also liquidity for your share and the outcome was actually add they got to 20 over 20,000 new shareholders us who invested in in paradox we can say that this was one of the most successful IPOs we had on many interests in in the Nordics last year on the first north and also the price development if you compare the black one is first north all share in Swedish crowns so paradox has been performing much much better than the others on the marketplace and also this shows that the investors are very active in in creating liquidity on paradoxus stock Avanza a nudnik bank

they are these internet traders but then there are these bigger big players like Scandinavian Shield a bumpkin Nordia svenska Honda's pumpkin and all the others and then also the international players outside the Nordics have found that the share of a paradox interactive and that's very positive so it's not just the local retail investor base making your stock live you have different investors investing and looking into the company and investing to their chairs well what might be the benefits of a first north listing - to a gaming company well active market as said there there's a strong investor base and demand investors are waiting for a new material to the markets and maturity of the IPOs we have had they happen always subscribed like when remedy entered the markets their share issue was 8.5 times oversubscribed and then the nordic

ecosystem we saw we saw earlier that it's really supporting the listings and supporting public markets and supporting companies growing and also become more international we have very good advisors here in the Nordics they are able to help companies on different stages of their growth and then also many companies have said that after their listing when they can put - all their papers and documentation that they are listed on NASDAQ first north for example it is the quality stamp for the company it really gives more muscles than in negotiations with other investors potential customers etc so it's really like you benefit also from the global brand of NASDAQ and it of course gives trans transparency to your operations you are not just a small or unknown company from from Finland from Denmark you are a listed company

what is so over 50 companies that we're originally listed on first north have actually moved to the main market and that is tremendous progress and I think we haven't seen the same trend in other it changes in in Europe at all and then there are other services also available for companies to to support their growth and operations but it's it's not just about how to get listed how to get traded we as exchange we also want to give opportunities to our issuers companies that are on our marketplaces we have different kinds of events for retail investors institutional investors gaming sector or sector based events then we take part of competition which we want to put our companies to the podium and

match make them with a different different parties so it's really that I mean after the listing it doesn't mean that the listing is the end of everything then you you have to still continue working very hard and to be seen and heard otherwise there is no liquidity no one will come it's like your modern times dating no one will come to your home and knock the door hey come on I want to date with you I mean you have to be acting you have to have your investor story straight and you have to be there where where the potential investors and customers are and of course we want to make best out of the our premises in in New York so there are this bell ringing ceremonies every trading day in the morning and in the afternoon and it's one way to create visibility for for companies listed on NASDAQ and I think every single every single

listing ceremony we have these are the pictures from the first trading days I mean when company companies trading has started so it's it's really every company makes its own celebration and we have these tower pictures like remedies having their and then the ceremony can take place either on our premises or in the headquarters of the company and there is paradox they had the role role among gestures I mean these different characters were attending also the ceremony and then there's up on the high up on the right there is actually next games and the chairman of the board is not hitting the CEO but he has some grand bad that is very original in in the game they they had also that fun with them they spawn dia the third legal

firm that could listed on in in world they had the event in their premises and then there's some celebrations also from New York but it's it's really a happy moment people are relieved or they are on the other hand they know that the work still continues and then if you are interested in in knowing more what what it might mean to your company or company you are you have invested in in November 8th we will have here in Helsinki a kind of like an IPO clinic fuel for crows and internationalisation breakfast event together with SCB and then also we will have a session at slush and a stack and SABR one of the key partners to class so it's really we want to spread the joy of listings and then also give you a possibility to be to pick up video and stronger and also survive in the international game thanks

and we do have time for questions if you guys want to ask something yep [Music] [Music] yeah well I don't have a crystal great questions by the way but I don't have

the crystal ball so I hope the window is still open we have a various asset that we have a very strong pipeline to this year next year and year to come but really it's it's say on a bigger scale question what one that what might happen but the latest listings we have seen on on the gaming sector they have been heavily oversubscribed so I think it looks promising still and then the other one of course are getting listed it costs money and it depends on how big the transaction sizes but I think if if you make wise decisions have a good good advisers you won't end up in bankruptcy because of the listing I think though there should be a huge amount under the red line microphone disappeared sorry do you guys

have any other questions I actually have one yep you actually mentioned that paradox have some shares for fans that want to know part how much does it influence other investors to know that there are users that can actually have shares of the company well they were paradox was marketing these shares I mean they had a lot of stairs in a certain system just available for the plans so the the gaming community got got a little as how do you say password and then they were able to access those shares and if so anything it was if something was left that was then sold to other I mean public yeah but I imagine that it has some influence and how the investors see the company to know that they are open to share part of their like wealth yeah fan base so I think it's very interesting yeah and I think also the

knowledge in I mean among investors in gaming is now has increased a lot there has been good examples and then whenever they are gaming targeted investor events taking place here and there there is always a big crowd and they are asking questions and from those questions you can notice and they have they have done their homework so that's good thing that the knowledge of the secretary itself or the gaming industry is increasing all the time and then it means that the investors are able to evaluate the offerings and also then invest more that's what we hope yeah that's really good thank you [Music] [Music]