Video game tycoon behind Playtika seeks US listing for second time after Beijing rejected the casino-style game maker
- Playtika is going public in the US after its owner, a Chinese entrepreneur, tried for three years to get it listed in China
- Beijing remains wary of anything to do with gambling or casinos, including the poker and slot machine mobile games made by Playtika
Shi Yuzhu, a 58-year-old Chinese entrepreneur, is seeking to list a mobile game maker known for casino-style games in the US after Beijing shut the company out of listing in China, turning the page on a corporate saga involving one of China’s most colourful tycoons, Beijing’s strict controls on gaming, and now US-China capital flows.
Playtika, an Israeli company with about 4,000 employees, filed an initial public offering application in December to raise US$100 million on the Nasdaq. According to the filing, the company is owned by Giant Investment, which is controlled by Shi and is owned by Giant Network Group.
This was the second time Shi sought to raise money from US investors, having previously raised US$1 billion in the country in 2007 by floating shares of Giant Network, making it the first Chinese online gaming company to go public in the US. After seeing higher valuations of game companies in China’s A-shares market, however, Shi decided to take the company private in 2013.
In November 2015, the privatised Giant Network announced that it would acquire a Shenzhen-listed cruise ship operator, resulting in one of the most spectacular price rallies in China’s stock market history. The share price of the cruise operator hit the daily ceiling of 10 per cent for 20 consecutive trading days, going from 31 yuan to 212 yuan (US$4.74 to US$32.45).
The deal was completed in March 2016, and Shi successfully re-listed his gaming assets in China.
Just three months later, Shi led a Chinese investor consortium to buy Playtika from Caesars Entertainment for US$$4.4 billion. Shi tried to inject Playtika’s assets into Giant Network to sustain a high stock price, but Beijing’s tougher attitude towards gaming, especially casino games, closed the door on the plan.