Nazara Tech raises Rs 410 crore from SBI Mutual Fund

Gaming and media firm Nazara Technologies on Thursday said it is raising Rs 410 crore from SBI Mutual Fund. This comes just days after a Rs 100 crore infusion by Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath.

The company’s board approved the issue of 5.7 million equity shares at Rs 714 per share to SBI Mutual Fund. The funds will be invested via three schemes of SBI Mutual Fund -- SBI Multicap Fund, SBI Magnum Global Fund, and SBI Technology Opportunities Fund.

“Making India the gaming nation of the world has been a long-pursued dream for all of us at Nazara. India’s largest domestic mutual fund investing in Nazara is an important milestone for us in this two-decade-long journey. We are very excited to welcome SBI Mutual Fund as our investor," Nazara chief executive Nitish Mittersain said in a statement.



This investment, coupled with Kamath’s investment on Monday, were part of a combined preferential issue worth Rs 510 crore, the firm said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

On July 10, Nazara’s board of directors had approved raising up to Rs 750 crore through an issuance of equity shares.

“We have been working on getting SBI to invest for over two years…Now the two biggest mutual funds in the country, including ICICI Prudential, are invested in our firm. Getting gaming-focused funds is not as difficult as getting a homegrown entrepreneur or a local mutual fund to invest in your firm,” Mittersain told ET in an interaction.

“I think we’re very proud of getting local investors to participate more actively in the Indian gaming industry, and their presence on the captable is more exciting than the amount of funds raised,” he added.

Though he would not elaborate on how the rest of the funds would be raised, Mittersain said the company was also considering a qualified institutional placement (QIP). A QIP allows a listed Indian firm to raise capital from domestic markets without the need to submit any pre-issue filings to market regulators.

“How we will raise the rest of the funds is a bit of a moving target… On preferential placements like these two, all the investors can’t participate because some have restrictions. The advantage with going the QIP route is the ability to service a large variety of investors,” Mittersain said.

On Monday, Mittersain told ET that Nazara was looking to launch a publishing unit in India. The company already publishes games like Animal Jam, Kiddopia, and World Cricket Championship, which contributed to a third of its revenues in FY23. Mittersain had said he wanted this share to go up.

In August, the firm invested Rs 4.15 crore in Israel-based game developer Snax Games Ltd, securing the exclusive rights to publish its games in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle-East region for five years.

On July 29, Nazara reported a 31% jump in profit after tax for the quarter ended June 30 at Rs 20.9 crore, while revenue for the first quarter of FY24 stood at Rs 254.4 crore, jumping 14% from a year ago.

On Thursday, the firm’s shares closed a marginal 0.45% lower at Rs 878.25 on the BSE.