Supercell purchase to aid Tencent's globalization

Supercell Oy CEO Ilkka Paananen (left) and Martin Lau, president of Tencent Holdings Ltd, pose while meeting with the media in Helsinki, Finland. [Photo/Agencies]

Tencent Holdings Ltd's investment in Finnish mobile gaming company Supercell Oy will accelerate the globalization of the company, experts said.

The Tencent-led consortium said on Tuesday it will pay $8.6 billion to acquire up to 84 percent of Supercell.

Charlie Dai, principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc, said the deal fits quite well with Tencent's global strategy as the Shenzhen-based company seeks to grow its mobile success beyond China.

"Tencent will not only have a gaming company with good global brand-name awareness but also popular games that generate good revenue globally," Dai said.

Currently, most of Tencent's gaming fans are located in Southeast Asian countries.

Supercell, developer of the hit title Clash of Clans, has topped the list of research firm App Annie's Top 52 publishers for 2014 and 2015.

Junde Yu, Asia Pacific managing director at App Annie, said Tencent is already monetizing its mobile games from overseas users. Last year, it derived more than half of its $15 billion revenue from gaming.

But some analysts worry whether the acquisition, one of the largest by Chinese companies, can live up to the deal value, given that many gaming developers have faded into mediocrity after making a global hit.

Xue Yongfeng, an analyst at Beijing-based internet consultancy Analysys International, however, disagreed. "Supercell has already established itself as a company with consistent innovation. All of its four mobile games are phenomenal and enjoy wide popularity," Xu said.

Meng Jing contributed to this story.