Japan's Marvelous shares untraded as China's Tencent takes 20% stake
26/05/2020 05:26
By Sam Nussey
TOKYO, May 26 (Reuters) - Shares in Japanese games maker
Marvelous Inc 7844.T were untraded with a glut of buy orders
on Tuesday and looked set to close up at the daily trading limit
of 17% after announcing 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, for 576 yen each.
Marvelous said 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)
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