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Gfinity held an accelerated sale of £1m in shares this week after the eSports company’s first public financial report detailed losses of £3.6m up to June 30.
The report revealed that profits were up on the same period last year by 163%, from £213,450 to £560, 828, however losses had increased four-fold from under a million to £3.6m.
The losses represent how heavily Gfinity has invested in infrastructure during its first year of public trading, following the opening of its dedicated eSports arena in partnership with Vue Cinemas in Fulham Broadway.
Almost one year after the company first floated on the London Stock Exchange, further share sales were issued on Monday at a price of 19p.
Though higher than the initial public offering of 17p, which raised £3.5m in December 2014, the price represents a 22% discount on shares as 5m were issued through the AIM – London’s international market for small and growing companies.
The new shares account for 6.3% of Gfinity’s capital, and represent a need for further cash investment to remain operational at their current level.
The June-June period has seen Gfinity’s registered userbase increase almost ten times to 400,000, and last month the company passed their initial online viewership goal of 50m over their 2015 Championship Series.
However, in line with that growth, staffing costs have risen to approximately £230,000 a month, totalling £2.14m for the year – four times the total revenue for the same period.
The increase in revenue is as a result of sponsorships agreed with News Corp UK, with The Sun newspaper taking on an official media partnership with their events.
In the summer, Gfinity ran an event at Olympic Park attracting 4,000 visitors to a hired out arena, but ticket sales have not been good for the company’s own dedicated arena for their more regular tournaments, and frequently seats are being touted for free to any spectators willing to register.
The financial report also revealed Gfinity’s cash, or cash equivalents, in June 2015 totalled £2.73m, enough to cover one year’s operational budget on staffing.
The issuing of additional shares should cover the shortfall for another year, but the accelerated nature of the sale as the company’s first financial report since IPO is released is a telling action.
Neville Upton, co-founder and CEO of Gfinity plc, said: “The sector continues to develop rapidly and offers exciting opportunities. Our ability to take advantage of these will depend on our funding and speed of revenue development through sponsorship and other forms of monetisation. We remain confident in our prospects and have launched a further round of funding to ensure that we have the short term resources to take advantage of these opportunities.”
