Saudi Arabia Is Now Nintendo's 5th Largest Shareholder

screenrant.com:

Saudi Arabia has become Nintendo’s 5th largest investor. Nintendo marks another in the long line of recent blanket investments made within the gaming industry by Saudi Arabia. One of these investments would eventually see the country become the primary shareholder of the struggling SNK Corporation, but other attempted deals, such as a partnership with League of Legends, would fall through due to controversy.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has made many considerably sized investments across the gaming industry with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, or PIF. In late 2020, PIF invested around $3 billion into several American gaming companies including Electronic Arts, Activision-Blizzard, and Take-Two Interactive. At that same time, Mohammed bin Salman would also use his self-established non-profit foundation, MiSK Foundation, to acquire a controlling interest in the SNK Corporation. Earlier this February, PIF would purchase at least five percent controlling interest of both Capcom and Nexon.

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A recent report by Bloomberg (via Polygon) revealed that Saudi Arabia’s PIF made a substantial investment of an estimated $2.98 billion into Nintendo which allowed for a 5.01% controlling interest in the company. This hefty sum would make PIF Nintendo’s 5th largest investor overall. Bloomberg also reported that this investment followed Nintendo’s reports of lackluster financial results amidst the continuing global chip shortage, and that Nintendo has had to lower its projected Switch device sales from 21.7 million to 21 million. The Bloomberg article goes on to say that Hideki Yasuda, a senior analyst at Toyo