IP E-Game's listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange
On Feb. 17, 2010, Philippine live service game publisher IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. (IP E-Game), which operated the gaming portal E-Games, made history by becoming the first video game company to be listed publicly in the Philippine Stock Exchange. However, the decision to become public came towards the end of the live service gaming boom in the Philippines, and it made the company one of the worst public stock investments available at the time.
IP E-Game is listed under the stock trading symbol "EG" in the Philippine Stock Exchange, though it has been suspended since 2015.
About
In early February 2010, IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. announced that it had secured approval from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) for the initial listing by way of the introduction of 33,545,554 common shares, under the second board of the Exchange, at an indicative reference opening price of ₱50.00 per share. IP E-Game chief executive officer Enrique Y. Gonzalez stated that "with our access to the capital markets, we are well positioned to further grow the company by continuously investing in our content pipeline and publishing infrastructure."[1]
According to a source by Abe Olandres of YugaTech, this was a strategic move by IP E-Game to generate fresh capital.[2]
Initially hitting highs of over ₱120.00 during the initial months, its price went around ₱40.00 to ₱80.00 in the later months of 2010. It began tanking to around ₱15.00 in the first half of 2011, with slowly stabilizing at around ₱25.00 in the second half. The stock price slowly decreased to around ₱20.00 until a voluntary trading halt was invoked in February 2012 due to the announcement that IP E-Game would be merging its live service gaming operations with its competitor, Level Up! Inc.[doc 1]
In May 2015, the PSE had suspended trading on IP E-Game after the company had failed to submit its annual report for the year that ended on December 31, 2014.[3]
References
- IP E-Games gets okay for PSE listing. February 4, 2010. Philippine Star reporter. Philstar.com Business. Retrieved on 2023-08-01.
- Is the local Online Gaming industry in trouble?. September 15, 2010. Abe Olandres. YugaTech. Retrieved on 2023-08-01.
- PSE suspends 3 companies. May 19, 2015 at 9:35AM. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla. INQUIRER.net. Retrieved on 2023-08-01.