Akatsuki has entered into commercial and equity alliance agreements with Sony Group Corporation and Koei Tecmo Holdings, and has completed a disposition of its treasury shares through a third-party allotment, the company Announced.
Through this allocation, Akatsuki will allocate 1,400,000 shares of its company to Sony Group (9.87 percent of its total issued shares as of September 30, 2023) and 1,130,000 shares to Koei Tecmo Holdings (7.97 percent).
Get the details below.
I. Alliance Agreements
1. Purpose and Purposes of the Alliances
Under its mission to “entertain the world and resonate with creators”, Akatsuki, Inc. (the “Company”) is focusing on games and has entered the comics business, aiming to be a company that uses content digital to compete globally in the long term. term.
Since its founding, the company has been expanding its core game business in Japan and abroad, focusing on mobile games. With recent changes in the market and improvements in the performance of mobile phones, and supposed commercial expansion outside of Japan, an increasing number of game titles are simultaneously being developed for use not only with mobile devices but also for PC and home consoles. The mobile gaming market is on the cusp of evolving into a new multi-device, multi-language “live gaming” market.
Taking into account the above market changes, the Company announced in its “Explanatory Material for Management Strategy Report” in August 2022 that it will invest 20 billion yen to strengthen its game development system and, as a company, will aim to more agile and dynamic capital policies. In the future, the Company carried out a buyback of its own shares, as indicated in its “Announcement of Acquisition of Own Shares and Purchase of Own Shares through the Non-Auction Share Buyback Trading System (ToSTNeT-3) ” on May 15, 2023. Additionally, we have been actively investing in new products, technologies and human resources, and our consolidated subsidiary Akatsuki Games Inc. (“Akatsuki Games”) held its “Akatsuki Games Now” event for new products in August 2023. Looking ahead, Aiming to further strengthen our game development capabilities, enhance our overseas marketing skills and create new content through collaboration, the Company had decided to enter into equity alliances with Sony Group and Koei Tecmo Holdings through the disposal of the treasury shares of the Company, and had agreed as written in “2. Detail of Capital and Business Alliances, (2) Detail of Business Alliances.”
2. Capital Details and Business Alliances
(1) Details of Capital Alliances
As a result of the Share Disposal, the Company will provide a total of 5,345,890,000 yen of ordinary shares of the Company (hereinafter, the “Shares”) to the subscribers. The Company will allocate 1,400,000 shares to Sony Group (9.87% of the Company’s total issued shares as of September 30, 2023) and will allocate 1,130,000 shares to Koei Tecmo Holdings (7.97% of the total issued shares of the Company as of September 30, 2023).
The Alliance Agreements will establish a framework for collaboration between the Company and the subscribers, with the objective of further ensuring business development and obtaining funds for the development of new games through the Company’s consolidated subsidiary. We believe that the implementation of the Alliance Agreements will lead to a long-term increase in the corporate value and shareholder value of the Company, thereby also contributing to the interests of existing shareholders. Additionally, as each subscriber intends to hold the Shares for the long term, we have determined that the number of shares subject to disposition and the scale of dilution and impact on the secondary market are reasonable to achieve these objectives.
For details of capital alliances with subscribers, refer to “II. Disposal of Own Shares through Allotment to Third Parties” below.
(2) Details of Commercial Alliances
① Sony Group
The Company will continue to build relationships with Sony Group and its subsidiaries to create new business opportunities, with the aim of cooperating in the expansion of the foreign market for mobile games, both those currently in development and those that will be developed in the future, as well as collaborating with co-production and development of new IP and content.
② Koei Tecmo Holdings
In addition to the gaming projects already underway, the Company will continue to strengthen relationships with Koei Tecmo Holdings in the following three areas to create new business opportunities in the future:
- A) Collaboration on the development and operation of next-generation live trading games for multiple devices.
- B) Collaboration in the global expansion, marketing and publishing of live operations games.
- C) Collaboration on new IP, content and services
3. Summary of capital partners and commercial alliance
For an overview of the capital and business alliance partners to whom the shares will be allocated, see “II. Disposal of treasury shares by allotment to third parties, 6. Reasons for selecting the subscribers for the disposal of shares, (1) General description of the subscribers for the disposal of shares” below.
4. Alliance Calendar
- (1) Date of Resolution of the Board of Directors on the Alliance Agreements and on the Disposal of Shares: December 20, 2023
- (2) Date of execution of alliance agreements and disposition of shares: December 20, 2023
- (3) Payments due for disposal of shares: January 9, 2024 (planned)
- (4) Start of Alliance Agreements: January 9, 2024 (planned)
5. Future perspectives
See “II. Disposal of own shares through allocation to third parties, 8. Future perspectives” below.
Read the rest of the 16-page PDF. here.