Saudi Arabia investing $37b in gaming; $13b "for the acquisition and development of a leading game publisher", $18b "for minority investments".

[DCSales]

Okay I went looking, trying to figure out how many shares Nintendo owns of itself. I am a bit confused by this chart since I see reports from WiiU and also later Switch era, that Nintendo bought back sizable shares over multiple percent each on order of billions of dollars.

Are we sure that chart doesn't just show non-Nintendo owned shares (and one instant of Nintendo owned shares (10%) in a treasury).

Feel free to correct me or my misunderstandings.

The page itself makes this clear...

*The Company owns 134,459 hundred treasury shares, which are excluded from the major shareholders above.
*The Company's treasury shares were excluded in the calculation of the percentage of shares held.

That's basically nothing, less than half a percentage.

SA are already the largest single shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares. This is clear hostile intent. Nintendo need to act now. Not in 6 months... NOW!

 

[Baki]

The page itself makes this clear...



That's basically nothing, less than half a percentage.

SA are already the largest single shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares. This is clear hostile intent. Nintendo need to act now. Not in 6 months... NOW!

They should implement some provisions at the board level and talk to other shareholders to make sure they're committed to Nintendo. However, buying back shares would not be a good use of money.

 

[Jimmy Joe]

The page itself makes this clear...



That's basically nothing, less than half a percentage.

SA are already the largest single shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares. This is clear hostile intent. Nintendo need to act now. Not in 6 months... NOW!

Repeating the word "now" isn't goign to make Nintendo take any action. They're not reading this thread

SA, according to the page you linked, would be the second-largest shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares, second to The Master Trust Bank of Japan. Dispiriting, but not exactly alarming

....

Now, I'd like to ask something for other folks in this thread, since I'm not versed in reading these things:

Nintendo is authorized to issue 400,000,000 shares. They have 129,869,000 "shares outstanding." What does "shares outstanding" mean in this context?

 

[Baki]

Repeating the word "now" isn't goign to make Nintendo take any action. They're not reading this thread

SA, according to the page you linked, would be the second-largest shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares, second to The Master Trust Bank of Japan. Dispiriting, but not exactly alarming

....

Now, I'd like to ask something for other folks in this thread, since I'm not versed in reading these things:

Nintendo is authorized to issue 400,000,000 shares. They have 129,869,000 "shares outstanding." What does "shares outstanding" mean in this context?

Shares outstanding is the total number of shares in the company. Right now, Nintendo ownership is broken down into 129M individual shares.

The 400M number is the number of "new" shares that Nintendo could issue. If they issued ALL those new shares, it would dilute current shareholders by 76%. For example, if they issued those new shares, and didn't give them to shareholders, PIF fund will go from owning 8% of Nintendo down to 1.92%. It's very very unlikely they would ever do this.

 

[Jimmy Joe]

Shares outstanding is the total number of shares in the company. Right now, Nintendo ownership is broken down into 129M individual shares.

The 400M number is the number of "new" shares that Nintendo could issue. If they issued ALL those new shares, it would dilute current shareholders by 76%. For example, if they issued those new shares, and didn't give them to shareholders, PIF fund will go from owning 8% of Nintendo down to 1.92%. It's very very unlikely they would ever do this.

I understand now, thank you. I didn't imagine they would do such a thing in any case, nor that they would need to

 

[BTB123]

The page itself makes this clear...



That's basically nothing, less than half a percentage.

SA are already the largest single shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares. This is clear hostile intent. Nintendo need to act now. Not in 6 months... NOW!

It doesn't matter what intent they have. A hostile takeover is literally not possible.

 

[Aquamarine]

The page itself makes this clear...



That's basically nothing, less than half a percentage.

SA are already the largest single shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares. This is clear hostile intent. Nintendo need to act now. Not in 6 months... NOW!

It's not that simple. I believe that the Saudis will keep purchasing Nintendo shares from the free float up until the 10% mark, but after that they go under much more regulatory scrutiny. This wasn't applicable to their acquisition of SNK, which was listed on the KOSDAQ market of the Korea Exchange and was an easy acquisition target.

Sovereign wealth funds acquiring more than 10% of shares of a public Japanese corporation on the Tokyo Stock Exchange require prior notice to Japan's Ministry of Finance, where they will analyze the Saudi Government's intent. The MOF may discontinue or modify further proposed investments if they believe Saudi investment would be harmful to shareholders or Japan's general business environment, like if they had ulterior motives.

Historically, foreign hostile takeovers have been rare for Japanese stocks because the environment just isn't conducive to them. There isn't any mechanism in place to where the Saudis can simply barge in and take over Nintendo overnight. Microsoft wanted to acquire Nintendo back in 1999 and decided against it for that reason.

 

[Terrell]

Also, beyond what Aquamarine said, one has to mention all the unissued shares Nintendo has, about 270 million of them. These are also a last-resort takeover protection… I’ll quote myself about what that means they can do.

it means that they are allowed to issue more shares in the company. They're not required to, but they can. The reason that they don't is that the more shares you issue, the existing shares have less voting power and are generally diminished in value. This is called "dilution".
It's a tricky balancing act, because sometimes you want to issue shares, especially if you're expecting growth and want to raise more money by selling more stock, but it comes at the expense of (at least temporarily, sometimes permanently if you bet wrong) devaluing the stock everyone else possesses. Dilution is typically only done to raise capital for an expansion that the company expects will increase their value back to what they were prior to dilution or better. Some companies even advise investors in advance, so they can be properly informed and make a decision to keep or sell.

There's a bunch of other reasons for the authorized # of shares being more than what is issued, but this one is the simplest to explain.
Additionally, shares can also be dissolved if they are bought back by the company that issued them (becoming treasury shares, which they are then allowed to dissolve), to increase the value of all the other issued shares.

So basically, in a worst-case scenario, Nintendo can engage in dilution and immediately pump up their quantity of controlling shares by converting them into treasury shares after issuing, devaluing their shares as a temporary side-effect that can be reversed after the fact.

That's not what I was referring to as hypocritical. Everything you are mentioning is why you don't agree with some people having concerns with Chinese business investing in companies. What I was pointing out as hypocritical was you taking issue with people taking issue with others disliking businesses for their reasons while you yourself are taking issue with others disliking businesses for their reasons.

Those “concerns” boiled down to “China is bad, so therefore any company that exists in the country is bad by proxy and inherently endorses the government“. That “concern” is not based on anything real. And yet even still, I had this to say on it which you seemed to miss…

And if that's what you believe, I'm not about to stop you

So I wasn’t even doing the thing you’re accusing me of.

 

[UnusMundus]

Those “concerns” boiled down to “China is bad, so therefore any company that exists in the country is bad by proxy and inherently endorses the government“. That “concern” is not based on anything real. And yet even still, I had this to say on it which you seemed to miss…

Which means you think you get to set the terms for which concerns are valid and which are invalid. Which means you are not following through with the mindset of "If they feel uneasy buying an entertainment product because of Prince Bonesaw, even if you disagree with the rationale, let them." You disagree with their rationale, yet you are not letting them. Instead you are calling them bigoted. Which is not following through on the ground rules you yourself are trying to set for this conversation. That is the part I am saying is hypocritical.

Sure, you said you're not going to stop him. But those are words. Your actions were to call him a racist. Which is pretty clearly more severe of a reaction than the people you told to back off regarding letting people do what they want had.

 

[SquidEnthusiast]

The problem with Chinese corporations is that their individual philosophies are somewhat irrelevant when they're all at constant risk of nationalization without warning.

 

[meatbag]

The majority of Nintendo is owned by foreign institutions and Japanese financial institutions. It's quite possible for SA to buy up enough shares to force a controlling stake in Nintendo

Those Japanese financial institutions are generally investors Nintendo partners up with, they won’t sell their shares.

Historically, foreign hostile takeovers have been rare for Japanese stocks because the environment just isn't conducive to them

Also this.

Buying back shares to prevent a hostile takeover at this stage in the game is financially unsound, at best.

 

[Vena]

The page itself makes this clear...



That's basically nothing, less than half a percentage.

SA are already the largest single shareholder outside of Nintendo's own treasury shares. This is clear hostile intent. Nintendo need to act now. Not in 6 months... NOW!

It is actually 10%, it says hundreds. So 13,445,900.

 

[Terrell]

Which means you think you get to set the terms for which concerns are valid and which are invalid. Which means you are not following through with the mindset of "If they feel uneasy buying an entertainment product because of Prince Bonesaw, even if you disagree with the rationale, let them." You disagree with their rationale, yet you are not letting them. Instead you are calling them bigoted. Which is not following through on the ground rules you yourself are trying to set for this conversation. That is the part I am saying is hypocritical.

Sure, you said you're not going to stop him. But those are words. Your actions were to call him a racist. Which is pretty clearly more severe of a reaction than the people you told to back off regarding letting people do what they want had.

I'm not "setting terms" of what's valid. One is based on a fact, the other based on a feeling with no basis in fact. MBS has overseen state-sanctioned murder, this is a fact. What blood do Ma Huateng have on his hands, other than apparently having the unfortunate distinction of his corporation existing in China, or that which can be found on the hands of every other billionaire across the globe?

Besides, China was not brought up because that user felt uneasy about China, it was brought up to present a "no ethical consumption under capitalism" narrative and shrug one's shoulders about this particular topic, which... no duh about the no ethical consumption part, but you don't have to malign every business entity in a country because they exist in it to make that point. You're free to track that convo backwards to confirm. So... you're taking umbrage with something that didn't even happen.

I'm sorry that you're offended at the notion that the unfounded idea that businesses in China are evil simply because they exist in China is not equivalent to concerns about a sovereign wealth fund set up and operated by a murderer. Either way, I'm out, because Lelouch already put a foot down about bringing this up and I've offered way too many words on this than the accusation was worth, since it was founded on something that didn't even happen to begin with.

 

[Ryuichi Naruhodo]

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has increased its stake in Electronic Arts.

According to Seeking Alpha, a new filing published yesterday for the three months ended March 31, 2023 shows the fund purchased more shares in the FIFA publisher during Q4 2022.

Prior to Q4, the PIF held 16.01 million shares in EA, but as of the end of Q1 2023, it holds 24.81 million – an increase of 55%.

 

[Terrell]

So at 279.6mil outstanding shares per their 2022 annual report, the PIF owns ~8.87% of outstanding shares.
But they buried the lead in that article. Unless Blackrock or Vanguard Group have upped its # of shares, the PIF is now the largest single investor in EA.

 

[Ryuichi Naruhodo]

Might be nothing , but worth mentioning




Takashi Kiryu , President of Square Enix , was invited to attend today an event in KSA called " New Global Sports Conference " that included esports events

 

[EnergyDrink]

I don't believe the Chinese governement is investing into games ?

People are taking issues because it is part of MBS push into gaming and he did ordered the murder of a journalist.

Tencent is, as all Chinese companies, under direct control of the Chinese government.

 

[Fisico]

Tencent is, as all Chinese companies, under direct control of the Chinese government.

While Chinese government inference to different degrees in all main companies in the country is undeniable, having such a blatant statement is bordering on a sinophobic stance (especially as it's far from the first case) considering you're adding nothing else in your post nor exactly pointing why and how the chinese government is supposedly directing the company.

For all intent and purposes Tencent is a publicly traded company whose historical main shareholder is south african to begin with

 

[Ryuichi Naruhodo]

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has strengthened its investment in the video gaming sector as it increased its stake in Japan-based Koei Tecmo.

According to a disclosure to the Japanese Ministry of Finance quoted by Bloomberg, the Public Investment Fund has raised its stake in the video game company to 6.60 percent from 5.56 percent

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2438576/business-economy

 

[GodlyTrident]

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2438576/business-economy

I wonder if they will do more SNK manoeuvres. Or even acquisitions. With Embracer it did not work out for sure.

 

[K samedi]

Ubisoft, EA?. Actually these kind of buys will create new opportunities for the local residents there and heighten the knowledge of games development and create new companies jobs etc I see these kind of things as a good thing for a country, even though the leaders are horrible.

 

[GodlyTrident]

Ubisoft, EA?. Actually these kind of buys will create new opportunities for the local residents there and heighten the knowledge of games development and create new companies jobs etc I see these kind of things as a good thing for a country, even though the leaders are horrible.

I doubt Saudi want to buy EA. It is just too expensive. Will cost around 50b. Ubisoft could be interesting but its issues does not make it really that attractive.

Realistically on the market, there are not many attractive purchases. T2 won't sell until GTA6 releases for sure.

 

[AruanaRiva]

Tencent is, as all Chinese companies, under direct control of the Chinese government.

Chinese Gov literally just tanked the value of their own gaming industries giant with idiotic moves lol.

Chinese gov does not fully control all Chinese companies. They may put some guidelines for them to follow(Which surprise all nations did to their companies in the nations) But they don't micromanage all those company decision. Stop parroting Right Wing word without any context.

I doubt Saudi want to buy EA. It is just too expensive. Will cost around 50b. Ubisoft could be interesting but its issues does not make it really that attractive.

Realistically on the market, there are not many attractive purchases. T2 won't sell until GTA6 releases for sure.

EA by itself also don't value much. Their core success is sports game which means it all fall into those club and player name and face rather than the game itself/IP.

So it is useless to get EA.

 

[K samedi]

Chinese Gov literally just tanked the value of their own gaming industries giant with idiotic moves lol.

Chinese gov does not fully control all Chinese companies. They may put some guidelines for them to follow(Which surprise all nations did to their companies in the nations) But they don't micromanage all those company decision. Stop parroting Right Wing word without any context.



EA by itself also don't value much. Their core success is sports game which means it all fall into those club and player name and face rather than the game itself/IP.

So it is useless to get EA.

Well, Saudis are investing big in football and attracting the biggest players recently. I could see them using EA Sports to promote their football investments like the Saudi league.

 

[Ryuichi Naruhodo]

Well, Saudis are investing big in football and attracting the biggest players recently. I could see them using EA Sports to promote their football investments like the Saudi league.

When they announced esports World Cup , The Front seat alongside MBS was FIFA President , Christiano Ronaldo and Square Enix President ( A Weird Crossover for sure )

EA Sports FC is a very long shot , but I could see them getting a license for a Simulation FIFA Game ( Not sure who can be the developer there ) , They are one of the very few Gaming-related Organizations in the World who can Burn money Competing Against EA Sports FC for Years without worries in order to try to get the Market Share from EA Sports FC and Fight for Licenses , especially that WC 2034 is nearly locked for Saudi Arabia