Reports indicate that the founder of Nexon, a Korean-Japanese video games publisher specializing in online mobile and PC games, is on the verge of selling nearly $9 billion worth of controlling stake in NXC Corporation, which is the holding firm of Nexon.
The gaming firm is listed on the Tokyo stock market. Apparently, the value of stake that was up for sale was evaluated to be about 10 trillion won ($8.9 billion). The share prices of Nexon affiliates, which includes Nat Games Co. Ltd. as well as Nexon GT Co. Ltd. had jumped as high as 30 percent on the same day, following the media report.
Kim Jung-ju, the Founder of Nexon, would be selling a total of 98.64 percent of the stake in NXC Corporation, which was held by himself and his wife as well as related parties. The potential buyers of this sale include the U.S. video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc., and Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, as well as the domestic industry rivals Netmarble Corp and Kakao Corp, cite sources who declined to reveal their identity.
An analyst at Samsung Securities, Oh Dong-hwan, said in a statement that there would only be a few buyers with the ability of purchasing Nexon, as the value for such a huge stake of the company would be enormous.
Purportedly, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank have been selected for managing the sale, however, both the financial corporations were not available immediately for comments. A spokeswoman from NXC Corporation declined to comment on this matter.
The founder has been reported to be quite unhappy with the regulatory restrictions in South Korea against the gaming firms. The shareholder of NXC declined to comment on the matter and also denied the media reports that cited regulatory restrictions to be the reason for this sell-off.