Norway's Kahoot to explore secondary U.S. listing -CEO

Kahoot ASA

18/03/2021 11:50

By Abhinav Ramnarayan
    LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Softbank-backed Kahoot
 KAHOT.OL  is to explore a secondary listing in New York or
another major European exchange as it looks to take advantage of
soaring investor demand for growth and tech stocks, its chief
executive told Reuters. 
    The Norwegian e-learning company, which made a switch from
Oslo's junior bourse to its main stock exchange on Thursday,
will use the coming months to explore alternative listing
options, chief executive Eilert Hanoa told Reuters. 
    "The universe of investors will be slightly bigger (on the
main stock exchange) and will help us prepare for a secondary
listing in another European exchange or another part of the
world," Hanoa said. 
    He added that New York is the most likely venue, but that no
decision has been taken on whether or not to proceed with a
secondary listing. He declined to comment on the timing of such
a potential move. 
    The company saw business soar after the COVID-19 pandemic
forced lockdowns across much of the world in 2020. It has a
strong user base in the United States, which accounts for 45% of
its revenues. 
    It completed a $215 million funding round in October last
year, with Japan's SoftBank investing the money, and saw its
share price more than double in the remaining months of 2020.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nNDL4kYLN9
    This prompted the plans to switch from the junior Oslo
growth exchange to the main Oslo Stock Exchange, a process
managed by ABG Sundal Collier  ASC.OL  and Goldman Sachs  GS.N .
    On the first day of trading on Thursday, the stock was up
4.5% to 110.5 Norwegian crowns, translating to a market cap of
49.16 billion Norwegian crowns ($5.84 billion).
    The company did not raise any new money while making the
switch, though the move should give it access to more investors
should it want to raise money for acquisitions in the future,
Hanoa said. 
    "We have the opportunity to have a capital raise in the
future, which will be of relevance for acquisitions and other
non-organic initiatives and partnerships," he said. 
    For 2021, Kahoot is targeting $90-100 million in invoiced
revenues with solid positive cash flow from operations and one
million paid subscriptions, a source told Reuters earlier this
year. 
    Apart from SoftBank, the company also counts Datum Group,
Glitrafjord and Bank, New York Mellon and Creandum among its
major shareholders.
    
($1 = 8.4232 Norwegian crowns)

 (Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
 ((Abhinav.Ramnarayan@thomsonreuters.com; 0044 751 745 1044;))