Skitude seeks listing on Euronext Growth

“The world’s alpine destinations are underdigitalised, and Skitude is leading the way with both the biggest skier database and a position as the leading player in ski lift ticket systems”, says Bent Grøver, Board Chair and Investment Manager at Investinor. “Skitude has recently signed an agreement to purchase the tech companies Liftopia and Spotlio, which have more than 150 destinations on their North American customer list. The purchases will make us the biggest player in the world, and we’re looking at a whole range of companies, as well as opportunities to put the entire world of alpine sports onto a single digital platform”, he says.

Skitude, which is the result of a 2019 merger between the ski lift ticket system Skioo and Skitude, offers ski lift ticket technology and community solutions to more than 300 resorts with 1.8 million registered users. Skioo was founded in Switzerland in the spring of 2013 by the Swiss entrepreneur Gregory Barbezat and the Norwegian Yngve Tvedt. In recent years, Aksel Lund Svindal, Canica and Investinor have become active investors.

“Skitude’s ambition is to digitalise the world’s alpine destinations”, says founder Yngve Tvedt. “A listing will enable us to accelerate growth towards becoming one of the world’s leading players in a significant, but fragmented, market with a very affluent customer base. Skitude already has more than 1.8 million registered users and has staked out an aggressive growth and expansion strategy, in which listing is a key component”, he says.

Liftopia is an American supplier of software and ski lift ticket systems to more than 100 alpine sports destinations in North America, as well as other types of systems to a selected number of summer resorts. Spotlio has 57 destinations on its customer list, and is an SaaS supplier of multiple services to these destinations.

“I’ve been looking into a lot of tech companies in recent years, but it’s rare to see a company with such a strong position in an underdigitalised sector crying out for consolidation”, says Aksel Lund Svindal, who is an investor in Skitude. “Almost wherever I go in Europe and the USA, I see long queues waiting to buy ski lift tickets. There’s no intercommunication between the systems and the technology platforms for tourists are way out of date. Skitude will resolve all of these digitalisation challenges”, he says.

Skitude had pro forma operating revenues of about NOK 109 million for the last accounting year, but aims to achieve revenues of EUR 80 million in the medium to long term.

“There are currently 135 million active skiers around the world who are anticipated to spend more than EUR 135 billion on ski lift tickets and related services such as the purchase and hire of boards and skiing equipment, travel, food and drink”, says  Christer Kjos at Canica. “In other words, an enormous market that has yet to be digitalised. Skitude’s ambition is to create a seamless and exciting digital experience for skiers all over the world. This will mean significant cost savings for the alpine resorts, which will be able to get valuable insights into their users and create communication tools tailored to their guests”, he says.

Prior to listing on Euronext Growth Oslo, the plan is to carry out a share issue and sell-down totalling up to NOK 270 million, which will value the company at NOK 350 million prior to the issue. Handelsbanken Fonder, Investinor, Canica and the Andenæs Group are the anchor investors in the capital expansion. The plan is to implement a bookbuilding that will start on 2 December with subsequent listing on 18 December, assuming that the application is approved by the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Arctic Securities AS and Pareto Securities AS are acting as the company’s financial advisers in connection with the listing on Euronext Growth. Simonsen Vogt Wiig AS is legal adviser to the company, and Schødt AS is acting as legal adviser to the financial advisers. Corporate Communications are acting as advisers on IR services and communications.

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For more information, please contact
Bent Grøver, Board Chair, at tel.: +47 950 40 492

About Skitude

Skitude is a technology company that offers digitalisation systems to the global skiing and alpine tourist industry – linking skiers to their skiing resorts using digital and mobile platforms. Skitude’s business model consists of three separate revenue streams: Annual subscription revenues (ARR) from software as a service (SaaS) paid by the alpine facilities, subscription charges from premium users, and e-trade revenues obtained from the transactions conducted by skiers on the Skitude platform. The company’s vision is to become a one-stop shop for skiers and holiday destinations, covering all products and services linked to alpine activities.