Nazara Ups Stake In Nextwave To 74.88%

Gaming major Nazara Technologies has 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. 

Nazara in an exchange filing, said “…. we wish to inform you that the company, today, i.e., December 16, 2024, acquired 1,000 equity shares of INR 100 each, representing 3% of the equity share capital of Nextwave, from its founding shareholders.”

This brings the gaming major’s total holding into Next Wave Multimedia to 74.88% from 71.88%. 

It is pertinent to note that this purchase forms the first tranche of the announcement made in May about acquiring an additional 28.12% stake in Nextwave Multimedia Private Limited for INR 21.6 Cr. This 28.12% stake purchase was to bring Nazara’s stake in the company to 100%.

Following the stake purchase today, a second tranche will be executed to buy 8,375 shares, representing a 25.12% stake in Nextwave Multimedia, for Rs 19.33 Cr. 

The 100% stake buyout in Nextwave will help Nazara strengthen its portfolio of offerings in the virtual interactive sports genre in India and other emerging markets, the gaming and entertainment giant said. 

Nazara first acquired a majority stake in Nextwave in January 2018. Later, in May last year, it acquired another 19.5% stake in the subsidiary in an all-cash deal worth INR 15.5 Cr, increasing its total stakeholding to 71.88%.

Founded in 1995, Chennai-based Nextwave develops casual and multiplayer mobile games in the sports genre, including the World Cricket Championship, one of the most popular cricket games. It claims to have over 100 Mn downloads across platforms over the last seven years.

In FY24, Nextwave posted a turnover of INR 21.92 Cr as against INR 23.79 Cr in the previous fiscal year. The company reported a profit of INR 3.16 Cr in FY23. 

The development comes less than a month after Nazara Technologies raised INR 855 Cr (approximately $100 Mn) from SBI Mutual Fund, Caratlane founder Mithun Sacheti, Aamara Capital, among others.

Following this, the listed gaming major Nazara Technologies announced plans to acquire additional stake in three of its subsidiaries – Nodwin, Sportskeeda’s parent Absolute Sport, and adtech Datawrkz – and make investments in kids-play centre company Funky Monkeys and edtech Learntube.ai.

On the financial front, Nazara reported a consolidated net profit of INR 16.24 Cr in the September quarter of the ongoing fiscal year (Q2 FY25), down 33% from INR 24.18 Cr in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. 

Shares of Nazara were trading 1.87% higher at INR 1052.15 at 12:50 PM on the BSE.