Bloomberg News Agency revealed that the Saudi Public Investment Fund is in talks with Singapore’s GIC Pte Ltd to jointly fund up to 800 billion won ($591 million) for Kakao Entertainment Corp’s initial public offering due next year.
According to the paper, the talks follow Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s much-anticipated visit to Seoul last week.
Kakao Entertainment is considering a New York IPO for 2022 with an $18 billion valuation, the company’s top executive told Bloomberg last year, though the timeline now looks uncertain.
Wednesday’s advance still barely made a dent in the downtrend as Kakao Corp. is down nearly 50% for the year, while Kakao Games Corp. has lost more than half its value.
Billions of dollars on video gaming
Last year, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund pursued investments in an industry long favored by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: video games.
Other media reports earlier revealed that the Riyadh-based Public Investment Fund acquired more than $3 billion worth of stock in three U.S. video-game makers during the fourth quarter, according to a regulatory filing. They include Activision Blizzard Inc., Electronic Arts Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.
