Rovio considers raising $400 million through local IPO - report

Rovio Entertainment is considering an IPO, according to a report from Bloomberg, which could take place as early as next month.

Bloomberg's sources said that no final decision has been made, but that Rovio would seek to raise $400 million in a local market listing, which would value the Finnish company at $2 billion.

Local market listings have been relatively commonplace among Scandinavian game developers in recent times. Last year, Paradox floated on Sweden's Nasdaq First North stock exchange, while both Next Games and Remedy Entertainment looked towards the Nasdaq First North Finland exchange this year.

In June, Tencent was reported to be considering acquiring Rovio, which stopped short of squashing the rumour in its official statement on the matter. Instead, it reassured shareholders that it "regularly assess different alternatives to further develop Rovio," and suggested the possibility of an IPO, "at some point in the future."

Rovio is now emerging from a period of transition, motivated by the need to diversify beyond its Angry Birds mobile games. The most prominent example of that push was the Angry Birds Movie, which grossed almost $350 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo. The film's production budget was $73 million, but the amount spent on its marketing push was rumoured to be at least $100 million.

In 2016, Rovio earned €190 million in revenue and a €17.5 million profit, both of which were significant improvements over the previous year.