Benzinga | Jan 27, 2022 07:17AM EST

Nexters Enters Agreements To Acquire Three Gaming Companies Investing $100M To Expand In Midcore Genres

An international gaming company Nexters Inc. (NASDAQ:GDEV) announced its first-ever series of acquisition and investment deals as a publicly traded company in relation to Cubic Games, RJ Games, and Royal Ark. With a total upfront investment of around $100 million, Nexters will bring the world's No. 3 mobile first-person shooter Pixel Gun 3D and other titles within its product offering, amplifying Nexters' position in midcore, the leading segment of mobile gaming. Through the allocated funding and its expertise in midcore, Nexters aims to propel the companies' future growth on the international markets. All transactions are expected to be financed by a mix of Nexters' cash on balance and a new share issuance1.



With the deals, Nexters aims at accelerating its product growth strategy and laying the groundwork of its consolidation mission. By expanding its portfolio of midcore games, the company expects to enlarge its player base and significantly cement its presence in the segment, which accounts for almost 50% of the time and 60% of the money spent in mobile gaming2.

* Published by Cubic Games, Pixel Gun 3D is the world's No. 3 mobile first-person shooter by monthly audience with a substantial potential for further growth. With this title, Nexters will enter the mobile shooter market which is estimated at more than $3 billion in 20213 and is the leader in players' time spent4.

* Puzzle Breakers by RJ Games will provide an opportunity to gain a significant position in the sizable segment of the puzzle RPG genre thanks to the game's high-quality art and engaging core gameplay.

* Royal Ark's survival RPG titles - Dawn of Zombies and Shelter Wars - will diversify Nexters' portfolio with games in a growing zombie setting, and will contribute to accumulating expertise in new genres and niches for the company.

As a result of the agreed transactions, hundreds of talented game creators, backed by veteran founders and managers will join Nexters, thus enabling substantial scaling potential within its group of studios. The company's integration team plans to help these studios to adjust their strategy for further growth by sharing Nexters' knowledge in development, monetization, marketing and other areas. The company expects that, due to the synergies and the contribution of Nexters expertise, the studios have the potential to increase their historical bookings by more than three times, which would result in around $130 million added to the group's annual bookings in 2024.

"We are excited to announce the inaugural M&A deals of Nexters as a public company, showing proof of our ambition to consolidate the gaming industry in the Russian-speaking region," says Andrey Fadeev, CEO and co-founder of Nexters. "We believe these deals, combined, are one of the largest gaming M&A transactions in the region, and will create a strong foundation for further consolidation.

There are hundreds of gaming studios with origins from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other parts of Eastern Europe. This region has always been famous for its talent, passion and capability to influence the global gaming industry. We have a lot in common and we all create great games, played and adored by millions of people all over the world.

I warmly welcome the teams to the Nexters family and I sincerely believe we will see more like-minded companies joining us in the future to hit the road together."