Nazara Technologies gets SEBI approval for IPO

Social gaming company Nazara Technologies Limited has got approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to float its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Nazara Technologies had filed a draft red herring prospectus with SEBI in February 2018 and news reports indicate that SEBI gave its final set of observations to the company, paving way for the company to be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) very soon.

The social gaming company has marquee investors such as WestBridge Capital, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and IIFL Special Opportunities Fund. The IPO will be entirely through secondary sale of shares by existing shareholders and will see a partial exit by promoter company Mitter Infotech and investor WestBridge Capital at a valuation of around $500 million.

ICICI Securities and Edelweiss Financial Services are merchant bankers managing the IPO while law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is the legal counsel representing the company and WestBridge Capital. AZB & Partners is the legal advisor to the merchant bankers on the IPO, according to VC Circle.

Nazara offers a wide variety social games such as chhota bheem, star cricket, bike racing, motor racing etc. across emerging markets such as India, West Asia, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America and caters to 130.43 million monthly visitors from across 61 countries, besides having more than 4.08 million paid subscribers as of September 2017.

Nazara has also invested in game developers like Next Wave Multimedia, NODWIN Gaming and Moonfrog Technologies besides real money fantasy sports operator HalaPlay.

The social gaming giant has also announced that it would be setting up an e-sports league by investing over Rs. 136 crores over the next five years. The Nazara management has also indicated that it is exploring the possibility of developing and offering card-based games like poker and teenpatti.