Nazara Tech buys 48% stake in Paper Boat for Rs 300 crore, turns it into fully-owned unit

Nazara said it will also consider merging Paper Boat Apps into the company at the appropriate time.

Nazara Tech has acquired 5,157 equity shares, representing 48.42 percent of Paper Boat Apps Private Limited, from its founding shareholders Anupam Dhanuka and Anshu Dhanuka. The total deal is worth Rs 300 crore, with Rs 225 crore paid as the first installment.

With this acquisition, Paper Boat is now a fully owned subsidiary of Nazara Tech. Meanwhile, Kiddopia Inc., a subsidiary of Paper Boat, remains a step-down subsidiary.

Nazara Technologies on July 19 announced that it is picking up 48.42 percent stake in Paper Boat Apps that owns the gamified learning app Kiddopia for Rs 300 crore.

The deal is part of the company's efforts to scale up its gaming business, which founder Nitish Mittersain believes will be the biggest revenue generator for the firm in the coming years.

The gaming company first acquired 50.91 percent stake in Paper Boat Apps for Rs 83.5 crore in 2019.

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Nazara said it will also consider merging Paper Boat Apps into the company at the appropriate time.

This is not Nazara Tech's only big acquisition this year. In May, the company announced it is acquiring a 100 percent stake in mobile gaming subsidiary Nextwave Multimedia by buying the remaining 28.12 percent stake from founder shareholders PR Rajendran, R Kalpana, and PR Jayashree.

In the previous session, Nazara Tech shares closed 2.5 percent lower at Rs 920 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The stock has gained around 7 percent so far this year, underperforming Nifty's returns of 16 percent. In the past 12 months, the counter has risen just around 4 percent. In comparison, Nifty rose 29 percent during this period.

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