Astralis passes vote to delist from NASDAQ in Extraordinary General Meeting

Danish esports organisation Astralis has voted to delist from the NASDAQ First North Growth Market Denmark. 

The vote took place at an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders and comes amid a continued decline in the company’s stock price.

Astralis said the board and management will now proceed with the application for delisting from the stock exchange. The company said in a brief filing that it would issue an announcement when its delisting application has been submitted.

For the proposal to succeed, it needed two-thirds of the votes and capital present at the General Meeting. Astralis announced its intention to hold a vote on potentially delisting on July 12th. The Company’s Executive Management, Board of Directors, and major shareholder Jakob Lund Kristensen all supported voting in favour of the delisting ahead of the vote.

At the time, the organisation said its low stock price and liquidity meant there was less reason to remain publicly listed.  “The liquidity of the company’s share on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Denmark is very limited, which means that there is limited value for both the company and its shareholders being listed on a public marketplace,” Astralis said in an announcement at the time. 

Astralis stock traded at DKK 8.94 (~£1.03) when it launched its IPO in 2019, but currently sits at DKK 0.80 (~£0.09) at the time of writing. This decline in stock comes despite relatively positive financial 2022 results, which included increased revenue and significantly lower losses over the previous year.

A delisting would also save the company money due to the fees and expenses associated with maintaining a public listing. Astralis estimated that it could save over DKK 2m (~£228,900) in direct costs in addition to DKK 1m (~£114,400) in indirect annual cost savings by not being publicly listed.

The storied Danish organisation first announced it was exploring a potential delisting in March 2023 when it initiated a ‘strategic review’ following a sustained stock price plunge.

Astralis became the first esports organisation to go public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in December 2019. The organisation competes in CS:GO, where its team is amongst the best in the world, and owns a spot in the LEC, EMEA’s franchised League of Legends league. It also fields a female FIFA player.

A number of publicly listed esports teams have seen their stock prices decline in recent months and years following an increase in pessimism over teams’ ability to generate profit