Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has no plans to stop its global gaming expansion. It has now increased its stake in South Korean / Japanese publisher Nexon.
- Industry analyst and Kantan Games CEO Serkan Toto spotted on Twitter that Nexon today updated information on the amount of shares owned by the PIF.
- The fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, increased its stake from 9.22% to 10.23%. It currently owns 88.5 million shares in Nexon.
- This move solidifies the PIF as the biggest outside shareholder of the company.
- Although Nexon was founded in South Korea, it is headquarted and publicly traded in Japan. The publisher is best known for online games like Dungeon & Fighter, KartRider, and MapleStory, which are especially popular in Asia. It is now also involved in the legal fight with Dark and Darker developer Ironmace Games.
- Nexon’s stock is now trading at ¥2,771.5 ($19.32) per share.
Saudi Arabia has been actively buying stakes in video game companies, planning to invest nearly $38 billion in the global games industry. Most of its deals are made through the $650 billion Public Investment Fund and its gaming subsidiary Savvy Games Group.
The kingdom has invested almost $8 billion in game companies over the past 18 months. Its biggest deals include a $1 billion investment in Embracer Group and the $4.9 billion acquisition of mobile developer Scopely.
The PIF also controls minority stakes in different Western and Asian publishers, such as Capcom, NCSoft, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two, and Electronic Arts.