Nazara Offloads Entire 72% Stake In Sports Unity

SUMMARY

Nazara has divested its entire 71.54% stake in Sports Unity, the company behind the multi-player quiz game ‘Qunami’, for INR 7.15 Lakh

The gaming major had purchased a controlling stake in Sports Unity for INR 7.5 Cr in 2019

Over the past year or so, Nazara has been on an acquisition spree, having invested in companies like Fusebox Games, Pokerbaazi, Paperboat, among others to drive revenue growth

Listed gaming major Nazara has divested its entire 71.54% stake in Sports Unity, the company behind the multi-player quiz game ‘Qunami’, for INR 7.15 Lakh.

Nazara had purchased a controlling stake in Delhi NCR-based mobile game developer Sports Unity Private Limited (SUPL) for INR 7.5 Cr in 2019.

In an exchange filing, Nazara stated that it entered into a share purchase agreement with its subsidiary Sports Unity and Shyamal Mehta for the sale and transfer of a 71.54% stake in SUPL.

With the completion of the deal, SUPL is no longer a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies, effective March 25.

SUPL does not have any business operations and had a negative net worth of INR 0.45 Cr at the end of March 2024 (FY24), the filing showed.

This comes just days after Nazara obtained the board’s nod to sell its 94.85% stake in its subsidiary Open Play to Moonshine Technologies, the parent of online poker platform Pokerbaazi, for INR 104.33 Cr.

Nazara’s Big M&A Push To Drive Revenue Growth: Nazara has been on an expansion spree lately, acquiring gaming studios and real-money gaming platforms both within and outside India.

Over the past year or so, Nazara has invested in companies such as Fusebox Games, Pokerbaazi, Paperboat, STAN, Ninja Global, Freaks 4U and Circle of Games.

In an exclusive interaction with Inc42 last month, Nazara CEO Nitish Mittersain said these strategic acquisitions will help the company scale its revenue and improve its operating margins.

The company’s organic growth strategy involves expanding the publishing business through acquisition of more IPs, investing in new content for Kiddopia and storytelling unit Love Island and Big Brother, scaling esports arm NODWIN Gaming and strengthening ad-tech business Datawrkz.

Nazara is eyeing to clock an EBITDA of INR 300 Cr in the fiscal year 2026-27 (FY27).

The gaming major reported its highest-ever quarterly operating revenue at INR 544.7 Cr in the December quarter (Q3) of the ongoing fiscal year (FY25), a 67% jump from INR 320.4 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

However, the growth in top line came at the cost of its bottom line. Nazara’s consolidated net profit declined 53.5% to INR 13.7 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 29.5 Cr in Q3 FY24.

At 2:42 PM, shares of Nazara were trading 0.08% lower at INR 954.70 apiece on the BSE.