The transaction will have to be validated by market regulators and should be validated in the second quarter of 2022, according to GamesIndustry. The management of the two groups should remain strictly identical elsewhere.
The Savvy Gaming Group, assembled in 2021, is just one of many branches of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, sovereign wealth fund and “financial arm of the “Saudi Vision 2030” program of economic and social transformations, which sets itself the objective of reducing dependence on the oil sector and diversifying the economy into new areas, such as the manufacturing and mining sectors, innovative industries, tourism and recreation“, according to the Public Treasury. In addition to allowing Saudi Arabia to put its eggs in baskets other than that of oil, the Fund also adorns itself with the finery of soft-power and aims to improve the image of a country particularly degraded by its bloody involvement in the conflict in Yemen since 2015 or by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.
One of the last feats of arms of the PIF thus turns out to be the purchase of the football club Newcastle United, for a little more than 400 million dollars. In terms of video games, remember that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund owns a third of the Japanese SNK, as well as shares ranging between 2.6 and 3.5% in EA, Take-Two or Activision Blizzard.