Investors continue to scramble for Roblox, a newcomer to the stock market, which continues the series of interesting stock market debuts this year. The shares of the computer game platform rose by up to 20 percent on Thursday before the market. Another contributing factor is that the famous investor Catherine Wood, founder of ARK Investment Management, announced that she had bought 500,000 shares.
The San Mateo, California-based company listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday and met with strong investor interest. The cost price was $ 64.5, around 43 percent above the previously set reference price. On the first day of trading, the stock had finished trading with a plus of 54.4 percent at 69.50 dollars. That made them worth around $ 45 billion on the stock exchange.
Roblox was founded in 2006, and users can also develop their own online games there. The platform benefited greatly from the Corona crisis, and the number of users almost doubled last year. The provider's online games are particularly popular with children under the age of 13. Roblox also offers its own digital currency called Robux, which can be used for purchases within the gaming world, but can also be exchanged for real money.
The company has not yet been in the black, with Roblox making a net loss of $ 253 million in 2020. The premiere at Nyse is not a classic IPO, but a direct placement. The papers are listed directly on the stock exchange without a prior pricing procedure. Larger companies such as Spotify or Slack had previously opted for this rather unusual, but cheaper option.
