A UK gaming studio involved with Forza and Hitman is set to IPO at £145 million

Sumo’s three founders front to back – Carl Cavers, Darren Mills and Paul

UK gaming studio Sumo Digital has announced it will go public on the London Stock Exchange this week in a listing that will see it valued at £145 million.

Founded in 2003, Sumo Digital is one of the UK's biggest games developers today along with "Candy Crush" mobile gaming firm King and "Grand Theft Auto" creator Rockstar.

The Sheffield-headquartered games developer, which employs around 450 people, creates games for Sony and Microsoft. It has worked on popular titles such as "Forza Motorsport 7" and "Hitman".

Sumo Digital will list "SUMO" shares on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market on Thursday.

The company said in a press release on Monday that it had raised approximately £38.45 million via the placing of new ordinary shares at a price of 100 pence per share. An additional vendor placing raised approximately £39.70 million for selling shareholders at a placing price of 100 pence per share.

The money raised will go towards cutting debt and and providing additional working capital for the business.

Carl Cavers, founder of Sumo Digital and CEO of the company, said in a statement:

"We are delighted to announce our intention to float on AIM. This is a significant step forward in Sumo's journey to become a global leader in premium development and creative services to the video game and wider entertainment industries. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the IPO, which has been very well supported by blue chip institutional investors.

"Our people are our business; we believe our teams are very well positioned to lead the way in one of the world's most exciting creative industries. Being a quoted company in a fast-growing tech sector will, we believe, allow us to execute our strategy, whilst continuing to put quality and creativity at the forefront of the products and services we deliver."

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