Nazara Tech To Issue 14 Lakh hares To Nikhil Kamath's Companies: Report

Online gaming company Nazara Technologies will issue up to 14 lakh equity shares of face value of Rs 4 each to Nikhil Kamath's companies, according to a CNBC-TV18 report.

The shares, worth nearly Rs 100 crore, will be issued to M/s Kamath Associates and M/s NKSquared - a partnership firm represented by its partners Nikhil and Nithin Kamath.

In an exclusive interaction with CNBC-TV18 post the announcement, Zerodha Co-Founder Nikhil Kamath said that he will look to increase his stake in Nazara further. Currently, the combined stake has increased from 1 percent to around 3.5 percent, Kamath said.

The shares will be issued at Rs 714 per equity share, which is a discount of 7.3 percent from Friday's closing price of Nazara. Both the entities will be issued an equal number of 7,00,280 shares. Post the preferential issue of shares, the stake of both Kamath Associates and NK Squared in Nazara Technologies will go up to 1.36 percent each.

Kamath is betting on the growing gaming industry at a time when the Indian gaming market is expected to grow from $2.8 billion in 2022 to $5 billion in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 28-30 percent.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), mobile devices are the primary drivers of India's gaming industry. Affordable internet and the availability of faster smartphones with enhanced gaming capabilities have also fuelled the market.

The number of gamers in the country is expected to expand from 420 million in 2022 to hit 500 million by 2025.