King suffers worst IPO day one of 2014

It was a rough day on the markets for casual games maker King yesterday.

The Candy Crush Saga maker kicked off its IPO with an introductory stock price of $22.50. By the end of trading that had fallen to $19 – a decline of 15.5 per cent that VentureBeat says is the worst IPO debut of the year to date.

The stock never climbed above $22.50 and at one stage fell as low as $18.50.

I wouldn’t be here if I was not confident,” chief executive Riccardo Zacconi said. The company has a great future. We are selling a very small amount of stock. We have been around for a long time. This is not unusual from what I have learned. I am super-confident.”

King’s over-reliance on Candy Crush Saga coupled with fresh memories of Zynga’s stock troubles are being named as the likely reasons for traders’ hesitancy.