The situation
Catalis is a tester of video games: it also had a small ‘work for hire’ business.
Nick Winks joined as CRO in October 2011 following a request from KBC Bank who had been asked by the company for a €4m emergency cash injection to avoid insolvency. Nick became Non-Exec director in 2015 by which time the business was consistently profitable. In 2016 Catalis acquired a games publishing business (Curve). In 2019 Catalis Plc was sold to NorthEdge Capital for €100 million equity value, at which point Nick exited the business.
Our approach
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Cash control
The next two years involved tight cash control and a weekly renewal of the KBC facility. WayPoint brought in a specialist cash manager to help Nick and the business get through this period.
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Restructure
The CEO was replaced by an internal candidate and one leg of the business, work for hire, was exited. A low-cost game testing facility was established in Poland. Early in 2016 Catalis bought a small games publisher which has since grown significantly.
Results
In 2018 Catalis re-registered as a Plc with a view to an IPO in London. An attractive private equity valuation from North Edge enabled the IPO to be dropped in favour of their €100m enterprise valuation offer which completed in October 2019 when Nick Winks left the business.