the Chinese Tencent strengthens within the French video game champion
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In the major maneuvers that agitate the video game sector, driven by a series of takeovers, the French Ubisoft was one of the most prominent targets. However, it is its current position as an independent that the French company has managed to consolidate, by signing a new agreement with its reference shareholder, Tencent, on Tuesday, September 6.
In concrete terms, the Chinese group is investing 300 million euros in the Guillemot Brothers holding company, the main shareholder of Ubisoft, owned by the Guillemot brothers, founders of Ubisoft (200 million euros for the acquisition of shares and 100 million on the basis of a capital increase). He now owns 49.9% of the shares. In addition, the video game giant granted a long-term loan to the holding company to refinance its debt.
Despite this operation, Tencent’s room for maneuver remains limited. In the immediate future, he will not be able to increase his stake in Ubisoft beyond 9.99% of the capital (against 4.5% currently) and renounces, for the moment, to take power within the board of directors. Thus, at the end of this agreement, the Guillemot family can remain at the head of the company for eight years. Better, the negotiation was done on a calculation of a share price of 80 euros, almost double the title of Ubisoft currently. “It’s an agreement between friends, based on negotiations that must have lasted several months”believes Julien Pillot, teacher-researcher at the Institute of Advanced Economic and Commercial Studies.
“A vote of confidence”
“This pact aims to provide stability to the group and the employees and to demonstrate that the Guillemot family is involved in the long term. This is also a vote of confidence from Tencent »we explain at the top of the company. “It doesn’t change anything” in governance, supplements another source in the company. “The family has increased its control”, we add. At most, we agree internally that the operation will allow “to strengthen ties in the future”, the very ones that have been tied for four years between the two companies.
The Chinese had entered the capital of Ubisoft in 2018, thanks to the withdrawal of Vivendi from the French company. If the separation made it possible to turn the page on tumultuous relations with the multinational, it above all allowed Ubisoft to gain a foothold in the Chinese market and to find a specialist partner in the mobile games sector, on which it weighed little until then. .
On the catalog side, Ubisoft has no shortage of cards in its game. With successful licenses such as Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy, just dance, Prince of Persia Where Watchdogs, the French studio is one of the most prominent in the sector. It also benefits from one of the greatest creative forces in the field, with teams established in Europe, America and Asia.
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