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Norwegian quizzes and learning company Kahoot has been a rocket ship on the stock market for the past year. Participation is up 126 percent this year alone.
Now Kahoot is raising a lot of money internationally.
Big in Japan
The company announced Tuesday that it has completed a capital raise, a so-called equity issue, targeting a subsidiary of the giant Japanese internet company Softbank. Kahoot collects a total of 215 million dollars, equivalent to 1.98 billion crowns, from Softbank.
Upon issuance, Softbank will have a 9.69 percent ownership stake.
The money has been cashed in at a price of NOK 46. On Monday, the stock closed at NOK 49.65.
Softbank and Kahoot have entered into an agreement that means that Softbank cannot increase its ownership in Kahoot to ten percent or more for a period of six months after issuance.
The money from the issue will be used to finance growth through inorganic value creation opportunities and continue to build a single platform business.
Inorganic growth can simply be translated into acquisitions.
Influential investor
Softbank founder Masayoshi Son has been one of the world’s most influential investors in technology companies in the United States, Europe, Japan, and China since the mid-1990s.
Softbank invested in Yahoo in its infancy. When the dot-com bubble burst at the turn of the millennium, his fortune plummeted from the ownership stake in Softbank by $ 70 billion. In a couple of days in March 2000, he was the richest man in the world with a fortune of more than 80 billion dollars.
He bet $ 20 million on Chinese businessman Jack Ma. The investment in Alibaba, China’s largest listed company, has become one of the most lucrative in the history of technology.
The Japanese company has led the tech rally during the corona pandemic and has a billion dollar profit. Softbank will buy major shares in Amazon.com, Microsoft, Netflix and Tesla this spring, according to the Financial Times.
Last week, Softbank’s stock price was at its highest level since the collapse more than 20 years ago and it has a market capitalization of 15 billion yen (1.3 billion NOK).
In 2017 and 2018, Softbank raised nearly $ 100 billion from wealthy investors in the Middle East for the “Vision Fund.” The money is invested in more than 80 companies around the world.
Rajeev Misr, who heads the technology investment fund, said during the Milken Institute’s Global Conference on Monday that they plan to establish a company that will be responsible for new acquisitions. “Vision Fund 2” is being planned and the goal is to launch $ 108 billion.
Think dilution is limited
Kahoot writes in the report that the company has deviated from existing shareholders’ pre-emptive rights to underwrite the issue, as Softbank has not previously been a shareholder, but still believes this is within the rules on equal treatment in Merkur Market and Oslo Børs.
The board believes that Softbank will strengthen the company’s shareholder base as an investor with extensive experience and expertise in owning and developing software companies. In addition, the board believes that dilution is limited to existing shareholders.
“The board is of the opinion that the private placement is in the common interest of the company and its shareholders,” Kahoot writes.
ABG Sundal Collier, Arctic Securities and Goldman Sachs are the facilitators of the placement.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
