Guitar Hero developer hires bankers for London float

The owner of a video games company which helped develop the Guitar Hero franchise has hired bankers to prepare it for a London stock market flotation.

Sky News understands that Catalis, whose subsidiaries include Kuju Games, has appointed Zeus Capital, the City broker, to advise it on options including a listing on the UK's AIM market.

Talks about a float are understood to have been under way for some time, and sources indicated that there was no guarantee that Catalis would ultimately list on AIM.

Catalis operates through three divisions, including Kuju, which has been responsible for developing titles including Zumba Fitness Rush, Battalion Wars for Nintendo and Powerstar Golf for Microsoft.

Its other operations are Testronic, which provides quality assurance services, and Curve Digital, which has published digital games such as Bomber Crew and Smoke and Sacrifice.

The company announced in January 2018 that would terminate its quote on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and relocate its headquarters to the UK.

An AIM float was envisaged as part of the restructuring, although City insiders said market conditions meant a sale to another private equity firm had not been ruled out.

Catalis's valuation is unclear, although the company said just over a year ago that it expected its results for 2017 to show a rise in operating profit to €1.7m from €1.2m the year before.

If it did float on AIM, it would join an expanding peer group of video games developers in London.

In the last 18 months, Codemasters, Sumo Group and Team17 Group have all listed in the UK amid growing demand for games on mobile devices.

Catalis is part-owned by Vespa Capital, a buyout firm which counts Imagesound and James Villa Holidays among its other investments.

The company was also reported to be exploring an AIM float in 2012.

Catalis did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.