Nazara Tech Shares Surge as Subsidiary Acquires US Entertainment Portal SoapCentral.com
Rekha Jhunjhunwala-Owned Stock Gains Over 7% on Rs 11.6 Crore Deal to Boost Presence in Entertainment Publishing Space
Shares of Nazara Tech, which is part of Rekha Jhunjhunwala's portfolio, are seeing a strong buying trend today. This buying is being seen on the company's announcement that its subsidiary Absolute Sports will acquire SoapCentral.com, an American entertainment content destination. On this announcement, Nazara's shares became a rocket and jumped more than 7 percent. The price has softened due to profit booking but it is still in a very strong position. Today it closed at Rs 705.00 with a gain of 4.10 percent on BSE. Intra-day it jumped 7.34 percent to Rs 729.65. According to the shareholding pattern of the March quarter, Rekha has 65,18,620 shares of it, which is equal to 8.52 percent stake in the company.
At what price did Nazara Tech make the deal
Nazara will buy the assets of SoapCentral.com for Rs 11.6 crore in cash. Through this purchase, the presence of Nazara's subsidiary in the entertainment publishing sector in the US will increase. The company also operates a pop culture destination SK Pop, which provides news and trends related to Korean pop and Korean media. According to the information given by Nazara in the exchange filing today on June 5, the deal can be completed within 30 days.
The management says that the entertainment publishing industry is twice as large as sports publishing. Management is confident that this will help Absolute to grow in a variety of content categories. Absolute Sports is a global sports media platform through flagship brand Sportskeeda.com. It covers major sports and esports in the world. Nazara bought a majority stake in it in 2019.
March quarter was weak for Nazara
Talking about the financial health of Nazara Tech, the March quarter was weak for it. Its net profit fell sharply from Rs 9.4 crore year-on-year to Rs 18 lakh in January-March 2024. This decline in its profit was due to a loss of Rs 16.87 crore from discounted operations due to write-offs in legacy businesses like real money gaming business Halaplay. The company has also announced the closure or merger of Nazara Bangladesh and NZ Mobile Nigeria.
