Japan's Marvelous shares jump 17% as China's Tencent takes 20% stake (updated)
26/05/2020 08:17
(Updates with closing share price)
By Sam Nussey
TOKYO, May 26 (Reuters) - Shares in Japan's Marvelous Inc
7844.T on Tuesday closed up 17% at their daily limit of 682
yen after the games maker announced China's Tencent Holdings Ltd
0700.HK would take a 20% stake.
Tencent will spend around 7 billion yen ($65 million)
acquiring shares from Marvelous and its largest shareholders,
Amuse Capital and its chief executive, Hayao Nakayama, a former
Sega executive whose son founded Marvelous. It will pay 576 yen
each - 1% below Monday's undisturbed closing price.
Marvelous said in a stock exchange filing it plans to use
the funds to launch games franchises and for overseas expansion
of current titles, which include farming simulator Story of
Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town for Nintendo Co Ltd's 7974.T
Switch console and cross-platform shooter Daemon X Machina.
The investment is the latest example of an influx of Chinese
money and gaming content into Japan, where a largely
unconsolidated industry underpinning the country's pop culture
is having to compete with well-resourced overseas rivals.
"In comparison to Western companies there is a widening abyss
in terms of development capability and financial clout,"
Marvelous said in a statement.
Tencent, the world's largest gaming company, launched mobile
title Code: Dragon Blood in Japan last month, which currently
sits in ninth place in gross rankings on Apple Inc's AAPL.O
App Store, showed data from analytics firm App Annie. Peer
NetEase Inc's NTES.O battle royale game Knives Out is second.
"Tencent is after the magic of Japanese companies creating
'otaku' geek-orientated content," said Serkan Toto, founder of
game industry consultancy Kantan Games, referring to the niche
but lucrative fan base for products spanning games, animation
and comic books.
($1 = 107.8400 yen)
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
((sam.nussey@tr.com; https://twitter.com/SamNusseyRTRS;
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