Diversified gaming and sports media platform ‘Nazara Technologies’ has raised ₹ 315 crores from marquee institutional investors including Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC-managed investment firm Gamnat Pte Ltd and Ahmedabad-based Plutus Wealth Management.
For this, the gaming firm will issue 1.43 million equity shares (14,29,266 equity shares) of face value of ₹ 4 each at a price of ₹ 2,206 per equity share. Gamnat Pte Ltd will get 1.1 million shares (equal to a 3.62% stake in the company) for a total of ₹ 259.8 crore. Rest of the ₹ 55.5 crore will be pumped in by Plutus Wealth Management, which will now increase its stake in Nazara to 6.92%.
Nazara is one of the biggest gaming based organizations in India, with ultra popular titles like Motu Patlu game series, the World Cricket Championship Series, and the Chhota Bheem game series under its belt. Moreover, on top of games like these, Nazara also provides sports news websites Sportskeeda and Nodwin, and skill-based, fantasy, and trivia games in the form of Halaplay and Qunami.
It had a stellar debut on the public markets in March 2021, opening with a massive 80.74% premium and a ₹ 583-crore IPO which was subscribed 176 times by investors.
Following this, the company has been on an acquisition spree, taking over PublishMe-Middle East’s biggest mobile game publishing agency, and skill based gaming company OpenPlay.
The company plans to continue what it has already been doing and use this new capital to invest in growth initiatives as well as pursue strategic acquisitions in various business verticals of the company. All of the acquisitions it makes become part of its vast ‘Friends of Nazara’ network, working with them to rapidly achieve scale.
“We are thankful to our investors for their strong endorsement of Nazara’s strategic vision and ability to execute towards its stated goals. The investment from such institutional investors will act as a catalyst for the Nazara flywheel to operate faster across all business segments and will result in compounding of the shareholder value organically and inorganically at parent as well as at subsidiary levels” said Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal.
