Nazara Picks Up Majority Stake In Kids-Play Centre Funky Monkeys

Listed gaming major Nazara has acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based Funky Monkeys Play Centers Private Limited for INR 43.7 Cr (around $5.01 Mn).

The transaction involved both primary and secondary capital. The company picked up 3.61 Lakh shares of Funky Monkeys at a face value of INR 10 each, representing a 21.43% stake, against subscription money of INR 15 Cr, according to exchange filings.

Nazara further said it acquired an additional 6.51 Lakh equity shares with a face value of INR 10 each, representing 38.57% of the equity share capital of Funky Monkeys, from its existing shareholders against payment of cash consideration of INR 28.7 Cr.

With the completion of the acquisition, Funky Monkeys has become a subsidiary of Nazara with the latter holding a 60% stake in the kids-play centre.

The development comes after the listed gaming company in December last year announced its plans to acquire a 60% stake in the indoor play centre chain for INR 43.7 Cr. 

Founded by Binita Putcha and Sanjay Ghadiali in 2012, Funky Monkeys claims to be the leader in indoor play centres for kids segment and runs 11 centres across India. Its founders said that the acquisition will allow for synergies with digital IP’s owned by Nazara such as Kiddopia.

The company is on an acquisition spree as in December last year Nazara announced plans to acquire additional stake in three of its subsidiaries – Nodwin, Sportskeeda’s parent Absolute Sport, and adtech Datawrkz – and make investments in Funky Monkeys and edtech Learntube.ai.

Since then, it has picked up an additional 10.26% stake in its subsidiary Absolute Sports for INR 72.73 Cr later in December. 

In the same month, it announced the purchase of 1,000 equity shares of Nextwave Multimedia, the developers of the mobile cricket game franchise World Cricket Championship, for INR 2.3 Cr. This brings the gaming major’s total holding into Next Wave Multimedia to 74.88% from 71.88%. 

Nazara also approved an investment of INR 64 Cr into its subsidiary NODWIN Gaming\ International to drive growth and global expansion. Besides, it also announced that it is looking to invest INR 15 Cr in its subsidiary Datawrkz in a bid to expand its footprint in the digital advertising space.

On the financial front, the company reported an operating revenue’s zoomed 66.8% to INR 534.7 Cr in the third quarter of the current fiscal (Q3 FY25) from INR 320.4 Cr in Q3 FY24. On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, it increased 67.7% from INR 318.9 Cr. 

Notably, this was the company’s highest revenue ever recorded. 

However, its consolidated net profit declined 53.5% to INR 13.7 Cr in the quarter under consideration from INR 29.5 Cr in the year-ago quarter.

The company closed the trading session today in green at INR 921.70 on the BSE.