China’s gaming group Tencent Holdings is acquiring a majority stake in Clash Of Clans mobile game maker Supercell from SoftBank Group in a deal valued at roughly $8.6 billion.
The deal will see Tencent which has stakes in Epic Games and Riot Games expand their interests overseas.
The deal will see Tencent which still relies mainly on its home market, will acquire about 84.3 percent of Supercell via a wholly-owned consortium, including all of SoftBank’s 72.2 percent stake, making it one of the world’s biggest ever gaming deals.
The consortium will open up to co-investors, though Tencent expects to maintain a 50 percent voting interest, it said.
Last year, Supercell had pre-tax profit of 880 million euros and sales of 2.1 billion euros ($2.38 billion) last year, which makes it one Finland’s biggest companies measured by earnings.
The deal will not affect Supercell’s current management, and will keep their operational independence and the company will remain in Finland.