Listed gaming company Nazara Technologies Ltd has announced that its board has approved a fundraising of Rs 315.3 crore ($42 million) from marquee institutional investors.
The fundraising is subject to shareholders’ approval. The Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed company will issue 14,29,266 equity shares at Rs 2,206 apiece.
The shares will have a lock-in period of one year from the date of issuance.
The proceeds from the issue will be used to invest in growth initiatives and to pursue strategic acquisitions in various business verticals including gamified learning, freemium, skill-based real money gaming and e-sports as the company continues to expand its “Friends of Nazara” ecosystem.
The “Friends of Nazara” network comprises established gaming companies in which Nazara holds majority stakes. These firms include Nodwin Gaming and Sportskeeda in esports, Next Wave Multimedia (developer of World Cricket Championship, the largest mobile-based cricket simulation game), Paper Boat Apps (developers of popular gamified early learning app Kiddopia) and Halaplay and Openplay in the skill based real money gaming vertical.
"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,” Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara, said.
Nazara’s shares rose 5.6% on Wednesday to close at Rs 2,630.8 apiece. The share has grown by over 13.3% since October 1. It has gained around 44.14% in the last one month.