• Swedish video games attract investors' interest

Swedish game developer King.com is planning to make an initial public offering on the Nasdaq next year, following a year of spectacular global sales for Sweden's gaming industry.

The Stockholm-based company's portfolio of 150 games have, in a few years, built a loyal following and are played more than 2 billion times every month via social networks.

King.com surpassed the likes of Electronic Arts, Disney’s Playdom and Wooga to become the second most popular game provider on Facebook, proving particularly popular with women in their 30s, who tend to play for a few minutes between other tasks.

Riccardo Zacconi, CEO and co-founder of King.com, is now planning the flotation on the Nasdaq, which is the favoured market for technology firms.

"If we execute well, what we have put on agenda is that we could IPO next year. So far we have not triggered an IPO - we have not appointed a bank - but we are structuring the company so that if we want to take this opportunity next year we can do so," he told the Daily Telegraph.

The company also plans to hire some 100 new staff in Europe by the end of the year, including 40 in London.

The news came as the Swedish Gaming Association released record figures for the country's gaming industry, with sales up 98 percent on last year to 2.32 billion kronor.

King.com has offices in London, Hamburg, Stockholm, Malmö, Barcelona, Milan, Malta, Bucharest and San Francisco.

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This article was published in collaboration with Stockholm Business Region.

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