Nazara Technologies became the first-ever Indian gaming company to go public. Nazara was listed for the much-anticipated IPO in March 2020. Since then, the company grew in valuation with exceptional performance at the Bombay Stock Exchange. IPO listing for a gaming company might not be a new thing to the rest of the world, but for an Indian company, it is a first. The Mumbai headquartered gaming company was top-rated among interactive gaming innovations and surfaced in over 62 countries. The Nazara technologies IPO marked the beginning of many other IPOs to come in the future. Gaming industries in India are thus entering a new future.
About Nazara Technologies
Nazara Technologies is a Mumbai headquartered gaming company founded by Nitish Mittersain in 1999. The company found its most important backing from Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. Mr. Jhunjhunwala is a renowned sports and gaming platform marquee investor who shares a mutual interest in business and games. Nazara was also backed by IIFL Special Opportunities Fund and Turtle Entertainment Gmbh. Seedfund2 International and good Game Investment Trust also played their part in backing the company.
Nazara Technologies operates on a global scale to create some of the best interactive video games. The company also specializes in multiple other domains of businesses, including esports, e-learning with games, and telco subscriptions. Nazara mostly targets emerging markets to capture audiences and spreads outwards to connect people with their innovations.
Users of India, Latin America, South-East Asia, Africa, and the Middle-East are well versed with Nazara technologies’ games and market capitalization. For the Indian subcontinent, Nazara technologies act as one of the leading esports streaming platforms and on-demand esports content providers. Famous sports-media platform Sportskeeda is an offering of Nazara Technologies. The company is also famous for varieties of mobile-based games like CarromClash and World Cricket Championships. Nazara Technologies have also created games based on famous kids-television shows like Chhota Bheem, Motu Paltu, and Oggy and the Cockroaches.
Read: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT JOBS RELATED TO THE GAMING INDUSTRY?
Reasons For Going Public
Nazara Technologies posted its IPO listings and planned to go live earlier this year. The company was quite famous already in the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia for its games media involvement. After the IPO of Nazara Technologies, the company became the first gaming company based in India to go public. When asked why such a decision, the officials at Nazara said they are looking for better growth and more opportunities to explore the market with multifold investments. The main agenda was to raise the company’s profile on a global scale with new investments opportunities.
According to Nitish Mittersain, the founder of Nazara Technologies, the company is not required fresh cash. There are ample cash reserves to go through the market needs. However, according to Mittersain, the company requires more opportunistic investments and growth on a global scale. Thus the IPO will serve as a good platform for all the retail and non-institutional investors to come and invest openly in the secondary shares of the company. The existing shareholders of the company are already en route to selling their stakes worth $80 million. On the very first day of the IPO, Nazara’s stakes were subscribed over 3.8 times. Nazara technologies were listed for IPO previously also back in 2018 but didn’t move ahead with it.
What Happened In The IPO?
Nazara Technologies’ IPO was a significant one in the history of the Indian Equity market because it ushered a new dawn in Indian gaming. Following the success of Nazara Technologies, other gaming companies will have the courage and enthusiasm to come forth and list their offerings. This will create a dynamic market with loads of open-ended opportunities. Nazara Technologies listed its offerings on 30th March in 2021. The company listed over 5,294,392 equity shares by the shareholders who were selling their stocks.
Nazara technologies’ IPO opening date was March 17th, 2021. The face value of each equity share was INR 4. The market lot size of Nazara Technologies in the IPO was 13 shares. Thus a retail investor can apply for up to 13 lots as per the lot size. The IPO was a huge success as the company’s INR 583 crore IPO shares were oversubscribed immediately after the opening of the bidding process. This value of the equity shares came from 5,294,392 equity shares, each having a face value of INR 4. The issue type of Nazara Technologies’ IPO was a Book Built Issue IPO. Nazara kept the IPO price between INR 1100- 1101 per equity share. Nazara is listed in both the Bombay Stock exchange and National Stock Exchange. The entire issue size of the IPO was offered for sale.
How The IPO Did Affect Nazara?
According to reports until September 2020, Nazara Technologies estimates an asset of INR 7986.55 million. From there, the company went on to gain significantly from the IPO. The shares were subscribed over 3 times on the first day itself within hours of opening. Each lot of shares involved bidding for a minimum of 13 equity shares. One could apply for a multiple of 13 such slots. As a result, the minimum investment by an individual was rounded up to INR 14313. The IPO close date of Nazara Technologies was March 19, 2021.
The company managed to gain multiple new investment opportunities through the IPO and also ushered new dawn of beckoning for the rest of Indian gaming companies. March 24, 2021, was set as the basis of the allotment date, while March 25 was marked as the refund initiation date. On March 26, the credit of shares to the Demat account was started. The final IPO listing date was March 30.
As projected earlier, Nazara Technologies gained many investments by the sale of its existing shareholder’s stakes. This is because the IPO was listed to raise maximum investments through various retail and non-institutional investors. A minimum application of 13 shares from 1 lot would see an investment of INR 14,313, while a maximum application of 169 shares from 13 lots would have an investment of INR 186069 from an individual only.
Pre-issue shareholding of Nazara technologies was 24.16 %. At the same time, the post-issue shareholding was 20.70 %. On March 19, 2021, the Nazara Technologies IPO was subscribed over 175.46x times. The retail category saw a public issue subscription 75.29x times. Nazara Technologies is listed in the B group of securities. The IPO opened at INR 1971 at the Bombay Stock Exchange; the last trade of the listing day was for INR 1576.
Conclusion
The overall impact of the listing of Nazara Technologies IPO can be found in future listings of gaming companies in the listed space. The IPO of Nazara Technologies showed a pathway and pioneered public offerings for the gaming industry in India. Especially Indian gaming start-ups are going to benefit a lot from the listed space. Thus Nazara Technologies has opened a scope of opportunities for others to follow. Other Indian gaming companies will soon follow the footsteps of Nazara Technologies as the listed space anticipates more engagement from the Indian gaming sector.
