The founder of the Yorkshire-based video games company behind hits such as Worms is set for a £50m windfall from a stockmarket listing valuing the business at up to £230m.
Debbie Bestwick, 48, founded Team17 in 1990 and her stake will be worth approximately £100m when the company floats on Aim this month. Bestwick, who received an MBE in 2016 for services to the video games industry, intends to sell up to 50% of her shareholding in the flotation.
Bestwick has positioned the Wakefield-based business as a champion of independent games developers. In the “about us” section of Team17’s website it describes itself as “a games label created by independent developers for independent developers”. One of its games, The Escapists, has been developed by an ex-roofer from Derby.
“We firmly believe that an IPO will not only broaden the profile of the business globally but will enable Team17 to continue to capitalise on our position as a leading independent video games label for indie developers,” Bestwick said.
Team17 has appointed Chris Bell, the former chief executive of Ladbrokes, as its chairman to help guide its international expansion. The flotation is expected to value the business, which has published more than 70 games, at between £200m and £230m.
Two years ago, LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, paid £16.5m for a 33% stake. It is also set to enjoy a significant return by selling up to 50% of a stake that could be worth as much as £76m. Since diversifying into the premium games market, Team17’s revenues have more than doubled from £13.5m to £29.6m between 2015 and the end of last year. Profits have increased from £6.1m to £12.9m over the same period.
Team17 is the latest success story in a booming British video games industry. There were 2,175 active games companies in the UK as of last summer, according to the games industry trade body Ukie. One of the biggest British success stories is the Grand Theft Auto franchise made by Rockstar Games, which is based in Edinburgh, although it is now owned by a US company.
Overall, the combined UK physical and digital sales of video games hit a record £3.5bn last year, an increase of 9.6%. Digital games sales grew 12% to £2.6bn. And physical games sales bucked a decade-long sales decline rising by 5% to £750m, thanks to the popularity of new consoles such as the Nintendo Switch.
The value of the UK games market is almost equal to that of the music and video markets combined – £1.1bn and £2.5bn respectively – despite the surge they have had from digital services such as Spotify, Netflix and Amazon.
