(Reuters) — Tencent Holdings Ltd, China’s biggest social network and online entertainment firm, is nearing a deal to buy a majority stake in Supercell Oy, which will value the mobile game maker at more than $9 billion, a source familiar with the matter said.
Tencent plans to buy the stake in Supercell, the Finnish company behind the mobile game ‘Clash of Clans’, from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1980490,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"D"}']SoftBank said last year it had increased its controlling stake in Supercell to 73.2 percent, without disclosing the financial details.
The Japanese communications and media company had bought a 51 percent stake in the mobile games maker in 2013 for about $1.5 billion.
Tencent, which is in late-stage talks with SoftBank, is in discussions with several financial investors, including Hillhouse Capital Group, to join in the purchase as co-investors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Tencent, Softbank and Supercell were not immediately available for a comment.
(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru and Liana Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)