Nazara’s Market Cap Crosses INR 10,000 Cr; Stocks Rise 21% Post INR 315 Cr Fundraise

The market capitalisation of gaming giant Nazara Technologies crossed the INR 10,000 Cr on the BSE during Friday’s intra-day trade. During the initial trade today (11th October) also its market cap was initially over the INR 10,000 Cr mark, but, by the end of the day’s trade it stood at INR 9,752 Cr.

Its shares on the BSE closed at INR 3,202.40, higher by INR 78.65 or 2.52% from its previous close of INR 3,123.75 per share.

In the past month, its share price has increased over 66%, resulting in a surge in its market cap.

Nazara’s share price on the BSE increased by over 21 per cent in the past three trading sessions after the company announced raising INR 315 Cr from Gamnat Pte Ltd and Plutus Wealth Management through the preferential issue of shares to existing institutional investors.

In a statement, the gaming platform said that the fresh funds will be utilised to invest in the company’s growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions in the various business verticals. With the fresh fundraise, Nazara is also looking to expand its “Friends of Nazara” ecosystem.

The ‘Friends of Nazara’ network comprises gaming companies in which Nazara holds majority stakes. These companies include Nodwin Gaming and Sportskeeda in esports, Next Wave Multimedia (developer of World Cricket Championship (WCC), Paper Boat Apps (developers of gamified early learning app Kiddopia) and Halaplay and Openplay in the skill-based real money gaming vertical.

In August, the gaming and sports media platform acquired Hyderabad’s OpenPlay Technologies Private Limited for INR 186.41 Cr. It was Nazara’s second acquisition after going public. Before OpenPlay, Nazara had also acquired a majority stake (69.82%) in Turkey and West Asia based mobile gaming publishing agency, Publishme in June this year.

Nazara became the first Indian gaming firm to go public in March this year as it got listed at INR 1,670.70 at a premium of 80% to the issue price. 

Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, held 10.82% stake in the company as of June 2021, and as per the BSE website, his holding is now valued at nearly INR 1,055 Cr.

Started by Nitish Mittersain in 2000, Nazara, at present, has operations in India and across emerging and developed global markets such as Africa and North America. Its offerings include — interactive gaming, esports and gamified early learning ecosystems.

In the first quarter of FY22, it had posted a consolidated net profit (attributable to owners of the company) of INR 5.3 Cr in Q1 of FY22, against INR 27.9 Cr loss reported during the corresponding quarter of FY21. Its revenue from operations for April-June FY22 was INR 131.2 Cr, a 45% rise from INR 90.5 Cr in the same quarter last year.

Update | October 11th, 2021, 8.28 PM

The story’s headline has been updated to showcase the right growth percentage of Nazara’s stock.

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