The maker of the popular mobile game "Candy Crush Saga" has raised $499.5 million in an IPO that values the Irish company at about $7.1 billion, Reuters reported.
The company is selling 15.3 million of the 22.2 million shares, according to Reuters. The rest of the stock is being sold by existing shareholders.
King Digital Entertainment PLC had $1.88 billion in revenue last year, Reuters reported. Its other top games include "Pet Rescue Saga" and "Farm Heroes Saga."
The company says it will use the proceeds for working capital and other general corporate purposes, according to Reuters. The shares are expected begin trading Wednesday on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "KING."
The offering marks the largest United States IPO from a booming mobile gaming industry that has been keen to emerge from the shadow of Zynga Inc, the social gaming firm that lost half its value after a 2011 IPO that valued it just below King at $7 billion, Reuters reported.
"It's fair to say that if it was a very high-demand IPO, we would've seen the price at the upper end of the range," Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said, according to Reuters. "At the mid-point, it's a successful IPO but perhaps not a runaway success."
Even if King, whose other games include "Bubble Witch Saga" and "Papa Pear Saga", pulls off a strong debut, the real test will be the stock's staying power in coming weeks and months, Reuters reported.
King hopes to avoid Zynga's fate by virtue of a stronger focus on a mobile gaming market worth an estimated $17 billion, according to Reuters.
Founded in Sweden in 2003, the company has drawn plaudits for transforming "Candy Crush Saga" into a household name that was the most downloaded and top-grossing free app of 2013 on Apple Inc's app store, Reuters reported.
