Tencent invests 300 million euros in Ubisoft and strengthens the Guillemot family

The Guillemot family, namely the founders of Ubisoft, today sealed a union with the Chinese group Tencent to keep control of the publisher behind many video games.

Tencent invests a little more in Ubisoft

Tencent, shareholder of the company since 2018, will this time invest 300 million euros in the family holding company, Guillemot Brothers Limited, to own 49.9% and the two partners will now act in concert, according to a statement. This operation will allow the Guillemots and their partner to rise together to 19.8% of Ubisoft’s capital and 24.9% of the voting rights (against 15.4% and 21.4% respectively until now), and to be in a better position to face any hostile takeover attempts, such as that attempted by the Vivendi group in 2015, in a video game market in full consolidation.

The operation “strengthens the anchoring of Ubisoft’s reference shareholders around its founders and offers it essential stability for its long-term development” commented its CEO, Yves Guillemot.

Tencent, which owns shares in several companies in the sector such as Epic Games, the publisher of Fortniteestimated for its part by the voice of its president Martin Lau that the operation illustrated its desire to invest “alongside creative founders, fully confident that they will take their businesses to new heights”.

In detail, Tencent’s investment breaks down into 200 million euros in the acquisition of securities and 100 million in capital increases. Underlying, the operation values ​​the Ubisoft share at 80 euros, almost double its price at the close of the Paris Stock Exchange on Tuesday, which was 43.28 euros.

Following this agreement, Ubisoft’s governance remains unchanged and Tencent will have no operational veto rights. Thus, if Tencent now controls 49.9% of Guillemot Brothers Limited, its voting rights in the holding company are limited to 5%. Tencent is also authorized to increase its direct stake in Ubisoft from 4.5% to 9.99% of the capital and voting rights, but cannot go beyond this for 8 years.

The alliance between Guillemot and Tencent could increase its influence to 29.9% of Ubisoft’s capital or voting rights.