Roblox direct listing reference price is set at $45

The New York Stock Exchange set a reference price of $45 for the direct listing of Roblox Corp., the online games company that originally planned to go public via a traditional initial public offering.

The exchange disclosed the price in a statement Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News.

Roblox’s shares will begin trading Wednesday without the company raising any capital. As with previous direct listings, the company won’t issue new shares at a set price. Instead, current investors can simply begin selling shares based on demand when trading opens.

Setting a reference price is a requirement for trading to begin. Unlike the share price in a standard IPO, it isn’t a direct indicator of the company’s market capitalization. At $45 a share, though, the company would have a market value of about $30 billion, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because it wasn’t public yet.

Only a handful of companies have done direct listings, including Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies Inc. and software company Asana Inc. in September. Music streaming service Spotify Technology SA went public through a direct listing in 2018, and Slack Technologies Inc. followed in 2019.

Roblox, based in San Mateo, Calif., has seen its revenue and user base grow as the coronavirus pandemic has kept students home and in search of entertainment. The company was valued at $4 billion in a $150-million funding round in February 2020 that was led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Roblox had a consolidated net loss of $197 million on revenue of $614 million.

Although banks don’t underwrite shares as they do in an IPO, they do advise the company on the listing. Roblox is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, according to its filings, and plans for its shares to trade under the symbol RBLX.