A new clan

10 June 2016 By Robyn Mak Follow @mak_robyn

The Chinese web giant is reportedly talking about buying the maker of Clash of Clans at an unexpectedly high $9 bln valuation. Such a big deal would be a first for Tencent. But buying the games-maker from Japan’s SoftBank could pay off – if Supercell can keep churning out gems.

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Chinese social media and gaming group Tencent is in talks with SoftBank Group to buy the Japanese company's majority stake in Finnish mobile gaming firm Supercell, in a deal that would value the games-maker at $9 billion, Bloomberg reported on June 9, citing people familiar with the discussions.

SoftBank and partner GungHo acquired a majority interest in Supercell for $1.5 billion in 2013. The company later bought out GungHo. It then increased its stake to 73 percent last year, in a deal which valued the game developer at $5.25 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the transaction.

In March, Supercell reported 2015 EBITDA of 848 million euros, up 64 percent year-on-year, while revenue rose 36 percent to 2.11 billion euros.

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