
Photo: VCG
Mobile gaming giant China Mobile Games and Entertainment Group (CMGE) has filed a listing plan in Hong Kong — the company’s third proposed IPO in seven years — as it seeks to parlay its recent strong earnings performance into a high valuation.
The company’s net profit surged 53.6% year-on-year to 249.9 million yuan in the first half of 2019, according to a prospectus filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday, echoing its rocket-powered growth of 66% over the same period last year. Additionally, revenue hit 1.5 billion yuan ($211 million) in the first six months of this year, more than double its gains across the same period in 2018.
The filing is the third time that Beijing-based CMGE has shot for an IPO since 2012, when it successfully listed on Nasdaq in the U.S. The company delisted in 2015, saying it wanted to list at a higher valuation in a market closer to home. Last year, CMGE tried to go public in Hong Kong, but that plan was scuttled for reasons that remain unclear.
CMGE claims to be China’s biggest mobile-game publisher based on the number of games whose intellectual property it owns either outright or through its subsidiaries. Thanks to its acquisition of developer Softstar Technology, the company’s portfolio includes the popular “The Legend of Sword and Fairy” and the well-received “Xuan-Yuan Sword” series.
Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com)
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