Nazara IPO: Nazara Technologies IPO to open on March 17; price band fixed at Rs 1,100 – Rs 1,101
The promoters and existing investors of the company, who are offering 5.29 million shares, or 16.7% stake, through an offer for sale (OFS) will be able to rake in Rs 582.91 crore at the upper band of the IPO.
Bids can be made for a minimum of 13 equity shares and in multiples of 13 shares thereafter.
The issue closes on March 19th.
At the base price, investors will have to bid for a minimum Rs 14,300 worth of shares.
IIFL is partially exiting, selling 14% stake in the company, out of its overall holding of over 21% and the promoters — who own over 22.5% stake—will offload 2.25% stake, while holding 20% in the company.
The promoters’ 20% stake will be locked in for three-years.
Meanwhile, Jhunjhunwala, who is one of the largest shareholders with 10.8% stake, has decided to stay invested in the company.
Nazara’s IPO will make it the first pure play gaming company to list in India.
The IPO includes a reservation aggregating up to Rs 20 million for purchase by eligible employees who can get the shares at a discount of up to 10% of the offer price (or discount of Rs 110 per share).
The company has reserved 75% of the issue for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB), 15% for Non-Institutional Investors and retail investors have been offered just 10%.
ICICI Securities, IIFL Securities, Jefferies India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities are the Book Running Lead Managers to the Offer.
Incidentally, this is Nazara’s second attempt at listing.
It had initially filed a draft red herring prospectus in 2018, but decided to shelve plans citing market conditions.
However, the lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a massive increase in mobile gaming and that opened up prospects for the company, which owns a majority shareholding in Nodwin Gaming, a leader in esports.
Founded in 2000 by Nitish Mittersain, Nazara has presence in India and across emerging and developed global markets such as Africa and North America.
It has offerings across the interactive gaming, esports and gamified early learning ecosystems. It owns majority stakes in World Cricket Championship (WCC) and CarromClash in mobile games, Kiddopia in gamified early learning, Nodwin and Sportskeeda in esports and esports media, and Halaplay and Qunami in fantasy and trivia games.
Earlier this week, ET reported that Nodwin Gaming, in which Nazara owns 55% interest, raised Rs 164 crore from Krafton, the South Korean video game holding company and owner of the popular game ‘PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ (PUBG).
The investment valued Nodwin at around Rs 1,100 crore.
Last month, Nazara had raised Rs 100 crore from Instant Growth Limited (IGL), an investment vehicle of the limited partners of Hornbill Orchid India Fund, a Mauritius based hedge fund.
Earlier in January, WestBridge Capital sold its entire shareholding in Nazara to Plutus Wealth Management for over Rs 500 crore.
WestBridge, one of the early investors, had invested Rs 22.6 crore in Nazara since 2005, and obtained sales consideration of approximately Rs 1000 crore from its investment.
The company has over Rs 400 crore in cash and has already invested over Rs 300 crore in the last five years in the Indian gaming ecosystem.
