Nazara Technologies Raises Rs 315 Crore From Marquee Investors; Stock Surges Over 2%

Nazara Technologies said its board has approved a preferential allotment of fresh equity to raise Rs 315.3 crore from marquee institutional investors. "The company will issue 1,429,266 equity shares of face value of Rs 4 each at a price of Rs 2,206 per equity share (including a premium of Rs 2,202 per equity share," Nazara Technologies said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges. The gaming company's shares will be locked in for a period of 1 year from the date of issue, as per Sebi norms.

Nazara Technologies issued 1.42 million shares to Gamnat Pte and Plutus Wealth Management at Rs 2,206 per share, which is a discount of 16 per cent to the company's share price as on Wednesday.

Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies, said, "We are thankful to our investors for their strong endorsement of Nazara's strategic vision and ability to execute towards its stated goals. The investment from such institutional investors will act as a catalyst for the Nazara flywheel to operate faster across all business segments and will result in compounding of the shareholder value."

The gaming company plans to use the funds to invest in its growth initiatives and pursue acquisitions across various business verticals, including gamified learning, freemium, skill-based real money gaming and esports.

In the recent past, Nazara Technologies acquired the Hyderabad-based skill gaming company OpenPlay for Rs 186.4 crore. And Nazara Technologies' independent subsidiary NODWIN Gaming acquired gaming and adjacent intellectual property (IP) business of OML Entertainment for Rs 73 crore.

Nazara Technologies was founded at Mumbai in the year 1,999 and is the only listed gaming company in the country today.

At 1:30 pm, Nazara Technologies shares were trading at Rs 2,682, higher by 1.9 per cent, on the BSE as against a rise of 1 per cent in the benchmark indices.