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.
The sovereign wealth fund acquired 14.9 million Activision shares with a market value of almost $1.4 billion during the fourth quarter, according to a Form 13F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Its other purchases included 7.4 million Electronic Arts shares and 3.9 million Take-Two shares worth about $1.1 billion and $826 million, respectively, at the end of December.
MBS’ Massive Spending
Saudi Arabia’s interest in gaming and eSports comes from the very top, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said to be an avid “Call of Duty” player.
Saudi Arabia’s Electronic Gaming Development Company (EGDC), which is owned by the Mohammed Bin Salman Foundation (MiSK), now almost entirely owns Japanese games developer SNK, acquiring 96.18 per cent of the company’s shares.
The deal, initially proposed late last year, was finalised on 15 February, according to SNK’s website. It follows MiSK’s earlier acquisition of a 33.3 per cent stake in SNK in November 2020.
At the time, the Foundation hinted at ambitions to only own a majority 51 per cent holding in SNK.
Despite the domestic and global difficult economic crisis and its involvement in Yemen’s war, Saudi Crown Prince MBS spent an insane amount of money in one game or company’s ecosystem.
Dot eSports revealed that MBS was one of the biggest spenders, affirming that he has already spent more than $6,000 on The International 2020 Battle Pass.
Over the last three years, he spent a combined $69,494 and counting on the Battle Pass alone, with $42,100 of that coming from 2018. He has been the top contributor in each of those years and set a record by reaching Level 175,000 in 2017.
MBS has been active on Dota since 2011 and has played over 10,000 matches in Dota, totalling a 5,772-5,467 win/loss record—a 51-percent win rate.
