Nazara Technologies, the India-based diversified gaming and sports media platform has announced that its board has approved preferential allotment of fresh equity to raise INR 315.30 cr from marquee institutional investors.
As per the announcement, the company will be issuing 1,429,266 equity shares of the face value of Rs. 4/- each at a price of Rs. 2,206/- per equity share (including a premium of Rs.2,202/- per equity share). As per the guidelines of SEBI ICDR, these shares will be locked in for one year from the date of issue.
The company plans to use these fresh funds to invest in growth initiatives of the company. Through the investments, they will also be expanding their presence by pursuing strategic acquisitions in the various business verticals of the company including gamified learning, freemium, skill-based real money gaming and esports.
Commenting on the announcement, Nazara Technologies Ltd., CEO, Manish Agarwal, said, “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.”
The company backed by the ace investor, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala had recently established their ‘Friends of Nazara’ network. The network comprises established gaming companies in which Nazara holds majority stakes and works actively with existing founders and management teams to rapidly achieve scale.
The companies that are included in the network are Nodwin Gaming, the esports sector of Sportskeeda, Next Wave Multimedia, Paper Boat Apps and Halaplay and Openplay, in the skill-based real money gaming vertical.
With this new funding in place, we can expect Nazara to pursue more strategic acquisitions that can further help them expand their ‘Friends of Nazara’ network.