Nazara Technologies IPO to open on March 17

Mumbai-based Nazara Technologies’ long awaited initial public offering (IPO) will open on March 17, marking the first ever bid by a homegrown gaming company to go public. 

The Rakesh Jhunjhunwala backed company is offering 52,94,392 equity shares for sale at a price band of Rs 1100 to Rs 1101.  

The issue will close on March 19.  

The anchor book will remain open for bidding on March 16.  

The price band’s upper end is expected fetch the company Rs 583 crore. 

Investors and promoters selling shares in the public offer include IIFL Special Opportunities Fund, IIFL Special Opportunities Fund, Good Game Investment Trust, Seedfund 2 International, Porush Jain, Azimuth Investments as well as promoter Mitter Infotech LLP.  

The IPO also has reservation aggregating to Rs 2 crore for purchase by eligible employees.  

The company had filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with market regulator SEBI on January 14, three years after it was first given an approval in 2018 but did not go for the public offer.  

A lot has changed for India as a market and Nazara as a company over the three years, said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies.  

“In 2018, India did not have a strong digital microtransaction infrastructure, it did not have a home fiber for a sizable number of people for multi-player games and it did not have the kind of smartphones,” Agarwal told TechCircle, adding that these factors have unlocked the potential of India as a market in 2021.  

“Earlier it was said that India is a download market or a DAU (Daily Average User) farm but not a monetisation market. That has changed in the last 18 months,” he said. 

Further, during a press briefing, Nazara said that it has built three strong revenue verticals which include its push in esports, including through its subsidiary NODWIN Gaming which recently raised $22.4 million from PUBG publisher Krafton. 

 eSports contributed 31.78% to the first half of FY 21 revenues. Other key verticals for the company include early gamified learning through Kiddopia with a revenue share of 39.24% and Freemium games which contributed 4.5%. 

Agarwal added that while the company had a strategic presence in skill-based and real money gaming, though it was cautious of the legal and state regulatory aspects of the operations.