SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: iCandy Interactive Limited (ASX: ICI) has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement to acquire 51% of Southeast Asia-based games development, polishing and licensing company, Digital Games International Pte. Ltd. (Storms).
iCandy is acquiring 51% of Stor ms for a total consideration of AUD 8 million, which will be settled via the issuance of new fully paid ordinary shares of iCandy when the Agreement becomes unconditional.
Further, there is an option for the current shareholders to sell the remaining 49% of Storms to iCandy within an agreed period of time.
Digital Games International (Storms) was founded in March 2020 by Singtel, Advanced Info Service (AIS), and SK Telecom. Singtel, AIS and SK Telecom are the largest mobile network operators in Singapore, Thailand and South Korea, respectively.
Storms develops and publishes casual and hyper-casual games through the Google Play and Apple App Stores and taps into its business-to-business (B2B) business model which leverages Super Apps and Telcos product offerings. It also develops its own instant gaming and gamification features.
Storms demonstrated stellar performance in its financial period ending 31 December 2021, with approximate revenues of SGD 4.1 million (AUD 4.3 million).
The management team of Storms, as well as Singtel, AIS and SK Telecom, are of the view that the share swap with iCandy will allow Storms to collaborate and advance iCandy’s goal of developing the gaming Metaverse.
“We are looking forward to partnering with iCandy Interactive as iCandy develops its Metaverse gaming ambition”, said Ms Lim Cheng Cheng, Singtel’s Group Chief Corporate Officer and Chairman of Storms’ Board.
“This will further our collective strategy to better serve our respective customers with unique and engaging content”.
Jae Shin Lee, Vice President and Head of Global Business Development of SK Telecom said, “iCandy with its game studios and development expertise makes a great complementary addition to Storms, which is a mobile game publisher and has expansive distribution advantages via strategic Telcos and other partnerships in the region. Together, they will be well positioned to create and publish games for the Metaverse and Web 3.0, as well as to bring Korean games into the Southeast Asian market.”
David Yin, CEO at Storms said, “We recognise many synergies between Storms and iCandy, with Storms making a great complementary addition to iCandy’s horizontally-integrated gaming business model. At the same time, this acquisition strengthens Storms’ ability to be a trailblazer in delivering more fun to the gaming community through efficient game development time and at scale.”
Post-acquisition, iCandy’s Board believes that the Company will be in a better position to extend the reach of its portfolio of projects through leveraging Storms’ expansive games publishing network in the fastest growing market for gaming experiences.
Candy is founded and backed by Fatfish Group Ltd (ASX: FFG), which holds a significant stake of 192.5 million Shares in iCandy throughits subsidiaries. Other significant shareholders of iCandy include Animoca Brands, a global leader in Metaverse gaming recently valued at over USD 5 billion.
The completion of the acquisition is expected to occur on or before 28 February 2022.
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