Riyadh, KSA, 18 May 2022:
The Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (Misk) has announced the completion of its investment in the Japanese electronic games company SNK through the Electronic Games Development Company (EGDC) that is wholly owned by the Foundation, in order to enhance the Foundation’s investments that aim to maximize the impact of its non-profit business and to continue empowering young people in the fields of digital media, creative design and animation and video games.
EGDC had completed the tender offer in February 2022 after fulfilling the relevant regulatory conditions, which resulted in its acquisition of an additional 62.85% share in SNK, following the acquisition of an initial share of 33.3% in March 2021. It means that the majority shareholding owned by EGDC increased to 96.18%.
The decision for delisting was made during an extraordinary general meeting of SNK shareholders on 14 April and the request was approved by the KOSDAQ Corporate Review Committee on 4 May and the delisting date was agreed for 18 May 2022.
EGDC is one of the investment arms established by the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation (Misk), to continue the growth and development of its non-profit business.
It will help to develop the non-profit sector through qualitative investments in this sector and provide financial returns that will enable the Foundation to continue supporting its non-profit business.
This step comes as an additional support for its strategic direction of empowering Saudi youth in a diverse range of pillars of knowledge that include education & entrepreneurship, culture & arts, science & technology, and digital media.
The electronic gaming market is one of the largest markets in the world, with a volume of about $180 billion in 2021 and it is expected to see double growth over the next five years. The Foundation’s decision to invest in this sector through its wholly owned investment arm, EGDC, is a strategic direction that is line with acquisitions being made by the world’s major companies.
For example, Microsoft, this year acquired Activision for $68.7 billion, Sony’s acquisition of Bungee for $3.6 billion and in addition Take Two Interactive has acquired Zynga for $12.7 billion in 2022 as well.
Nearly one and half million people have benefited from the various activities of the Misk Foundation during the last two years, with its training programs, educational platforms, and partnerships with international organizations, and has contributed to the support of more than 200 start-ups.
The Foundation previously signed 12 MoUs with international companies, notably the Chinese company “Huawei” and French “Total” with the aim of supporting young people, empowering them and supporting their talents, in addition to launching 69 educational and training programs that varied between the Misk Academy and the Misk Fellowship Initiative and others, benefiting more than 290,000 beneficiaries of the Foundation’s educational initiatives.
This strategic acquisition supports the Foundation’s orientation in developing young talents, as it has previously trained more than 2,500 male and female students in the fields of digital media, creative design, animation and video games.
That is in addition to holding 42 media-related events attended by 14,000 participants and has conducted more than 600 workshops and discussion sessions.
It has also launched more than 129 study programs in the field of technology and worked on transferring modern technical efforts to more than 20,000 students, as this strategic acquisition further supports the Foundation’s commitment to developing young talents in various modern technical fields.
Since its establishment in 2011, the Foundation has received personal funding from its founder, His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman, amounting to SAR 4.4 billion over the past ten years.
This is based on His Highness’ belief in the importance of the role it plays in developing education as a basic pillar for the development of society and culture, embodying the national identity, preserving the intellectual and cultural heritage and increasing its production, and the importance of keeping pace with modern technology and stimulating innovation as one of the tools for building the future.
This is in addition to the funding for its affiliated institutions and companies, which work side by side with the Foundation to achieve their goals.
The investment in SNK continues a long-standing partnership with the Japanese company that includes previously working on joint projects in animation and video games, through the Misk Foundation’s subsidiary Manga Productions.
The Misk Foundation supports the empowerment of youth. It achieves that through designing programs and initiatives and building partnerships with leading local and international organizations. It seeks to continuously develop its programs to maximize the positive impact it creates on its young beneficiaries.
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