Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund buys 5% stake in Nintendo for around $3 billion

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has made a big investment in Nintendo. It acquired a 5% stake in the Japanese company, which makes it the fifth-largest shareholder.

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The purchase of a 5.01% stake was made for investment purposes, Bloomberg reported, citing a filing to Japan’s Finance Ministry.

There are not many details about the deal, but Gearoid Reidy from Bloomberg News in Tokyo noted that it is worth around $3 billion. A Nintendo spokesperson said that the company learned about the investment from news reports, refusing to comment on its stakeholders.

“Saudi Arabia has been beefing up efforts to create its own content industry, and this series of investments in Japanese game companies is likely a way for them to learn from Japan,” Toyo Securities senior analyst Hideki Yasuda said.

The Public Investment Fund, chaired by prince Mohamed bin Salman Al-Saud, has already invested in several Asian companies. Earlier this year, it bought 5% stakes in Capcom and Nexon for a total of $1.2 billion and acquired 2.57% shares of NCSOFT for $235 million.

Last year, the PIF spent over $3 billion to buy stakes in Activision Blizzard, Take-Two, and Electronic Arts.

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