PIF raises its stake in video game company “Nintendo” to 8.26%‎

A disclosure today, Friday, showed that the Public Investment Fund raised its stake in Nintendo from 7.08% to 8.26%, in the second disclosure of increasing the stake this week, after a previous disclosure on Wednesday.

The Public Investment Fund is working to expand its investments in the Japanese gaming giant, as well as in the Swedish Embriser company and the Chinese (VSPO) backed by Tencent Holdings.

The Public Investment Fund had made its first major investment in the Chinese gaming market, after it participated in a financing round for a company organizing e-sports tournaments backed by Tencent Holdings, Al Arabiya reported.

This comes after the “Savvy Games Group”, a unit of the Public Investment Fund, invested $ 265 million in the “VSPO” company, which promotes and manages competitive gaming events such as “League of Legends” and “PUBG”. “

The Shanghai-based company, formerly known as VSPN, which is also backed by Sequoia China and Susquehanna International Group, did not disclose its rating in the Series C funding round. Savvy is now the largest single shareholder in VSPO, according to a statement on Thursday.

The funding could help VSPO restart professional gaming in China after a two-year lull, when pandemic restrictions and Beijing’s crackdown on the internet sector quieted the world’s largest gaming arena.

The 6-year-old startup has had a few faltering attempts at an initial public offering. It discussed an initial public offering in the United States in 2021, then filed in Hong Kong last year, during Beijing’s heightened scrutiny of overseas listings.

Tencent was VSPO’s largest customer and external investor with a 13.5% stake in the company, according to the company’s January 2022 pre-registration document. In the first three quarters of 2021, VSPO revenue jumped 144% to 1.3 billion yuan ($190 million), by doing business activities such as organizing tournaments, sponsoring and managing fan pages.

VSPO has more than 1,400 employees in Shanghai, Chengdu and Seoul, and plans to open new offices in Los Angeles and Riyadh. The company said that it participates in more than 70% of e-sports competitions in China

The Public Investment Fund has built stakes in listed game companies such as Activision Blizzard Inc and Nintendo.

Nintendo develops video games and consoles. Founded in 1889 by artisan Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards.