RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, has stakes of more than 5 percent in two Japan-listed gaming companies.
Bloomberg said the combined holdings are worth around $1.2 billion in Capcom Co., the maker of the Street Fighter and Resident Evil franchises, and online games provider Nexon Co.
PIF’s stake in Capcom is worth about $332 million based on Friday’s share price, according to Bloomberg.
Shares in Osaka-based Capcom rose as much as 1.7 percent after the disclosure on Friday.
The PIF also took a 5.02 percent stake of $883 million in Nexon, the company behind role-playing games like MapleStory and Dungeon&Fighter, Bloomberg said.
Saudi Arabia is the key GCC player in the gaming market. The electronic games market in the kingdom reached one billion dollars in 2021, according to Niko Partners, noting that the Kingdom is the heart of the most prominent video games sector in the Arab region due to its bigger population and high spending power.
According to data from IDC and NEW ZOO, Saudi Arabia dominated the area in spending on electronic games over the past year, with $1.09 billion spent, or roughly 20 percent of the total expenditure of $5.4 billion. The Emiratis came in second with a billion dollars.
