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Port Update :

NPN +41 % (66 % of Port)  (B)
OCE +4 % (26 % of Port)   (H)

Port 2.

BIL + 16 % (92 % of Port) (H)

Tencent Holdings Ltd. will lead an $8.6 billion acquisition of gamemaker Supercell Oy, getting its hands on some of the industry’s most popular mobile titles through potentially its largest-ever overseas deal.

JSE-listed Naspers owns a 34% stake in Tencent. At 13:25 Naspers’ shares were down 1.63% at R2 173.90.

China’s largest internet company is leading a group that will buy 84 percent of Supercell, including shares held by SoftBank Group Corp. and current and former employees. The deal values the Finnish gaming house at about $10.2 billion and adds chart-toppers Clash of Clans and Hay Day to a Tencent portfolio that dominates the Chinese social media scene but made few waves abroad.

Tencent, Baidu Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have embarked on an acquisition spree, seeking content and technology in their tug-of-war over the world’s largest internet population. The Supercell purchase may galvanize a wave of overseas deals as the trio’s ambitions expand beyond a slowing home market — till now, the triumvirate has focused much of its spending domestically.

“The repeated success of Supercell makes it a perfect asset in the Tencent empire,” said Joost van Dreunen, CEO of SuperData Research, a New York-based market researcher. “The market for mobile and online gaming is saturating and, unsurprisingly, has begun to consolidate. Digitalization triggered the evolution of the games industry into a worldwide market governed by titans.”

SoftBank rose 1.4 percent to 5,842 yen in Tokyo before the deal was announced. The shares have declined 4.8 percent this year. Tencent gained 1.3 percent in Hong Kong.

Atypical deal
Tencent formed a consortium to take control of Supercell and has begun negotiations with “potential co-investors” to join that group. It expects to eventually keep 50 percent voting rights in that group but will complete the acquisition on its own if necessary, it said in a statement.

Tencent will distribute Supercell’s games in China.

“We are excited that Supercell is joining our global network of game partners, and will preserve their independence and enhance their advantages,” Tencent President Martin Lau said in the statement.

Tencent’s multi-billion dollar outlay is unusual for a company that typically prefers smaller deals or strategic stakes in companies. At a $10 billion valuation, Supercell’s price tag outstrips the $5.9 billion Activision Blizzard Inc. agreed to pay for Candy Crush Saga studio King Digital Entertainment Plc in 2015.

Supercell’s mobile games employ a “freemium” model where apps cost nothing to download but users can buy perks or special items to gain an edge. That approach has created a string of successes from King’s Candy Crush to Clash of Clans, a mobile battle-strategy game that’s consistently among the top-grossing. Supercell’s revenue surged 36 percent to 2.1 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in 2015.

The acquisition should help safeguard Tencent’s lead in gaming and content over Alibaba and Baidu. Tencent already gets more than half its revenue from games, many designed in-house, and has invested in League of Legends developer Riot Games Inc. and Glu Mobile Inc., the San Francisco-based studio known for smartphone titles featuring Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry. Alibaba’s also invested in gaming, including in U.S. developer Kabam Inc., but Tencent has the advantage of operating China’s most popular messaging services in QQ and WeChat.

“Tencent probably sees this as a reasonable price to pay because games are its most important business,” Marie Sun, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Service, said by phone. “With its vast distribution channels across QQ and WeChat, the company would have many ways to monetize the games that Supercell has.”

Cleaning up
The sale will go a long way toward cleaning up SoftBank’s debt-laden balance sheet. It’s part of Masayoshi Son’s effort to focus capital on promising startups. SoftBank has decided that games aren’t a core part of its business and has already agreed to unload game developer GungHo Online Entertainment Inc. while it is raising $10 billion trimming its stake in Alibaba.

Son built his corporate empire by borrowing heavily to finance acquisitions, transforming a humble computer software distributor into a global technology giant. While earlier bets like Alibaba paid off, the purchase of money-losing Sprint Corp. backfired. SoftBank led a deal for 50.5 percent of Supercell in 2013 for $1.53 billion before adding a further 22.7 percent last year.

He’s seen the value of his company shrink over the past two years as Sprint’s losses mounted, and SoftBank’s debt pile grew to a record 11.9 trillion yen.

Tencent Seals Deal to Buy ‘Clash of Clans’ Developer Supercell for $8.6 Billion

Port Update :

NPN +38 % (66 % of Port)  B
OCE +3 % (26 % of Port)   H/B
KIO + 1 % (2% of Port) H/S
Port 2.

BIL + 12 % (92 % of Port) H/B

The world’s biggest Atlantic salmon producer wants to start farming fish inside a ship rather than the sea.

Building traditional fish farms on the open water in Norway has become almost impossible because of state rules intended to curb outbreaks of sea lice, a parasite that can kill young fish. So raising salmon inside an unwanted cargo ship is one of a few options proposed by Marine Harvest ASA, which is trying to boost production at a time when prices are near a record high.

Output in Norway, the top producer, is falling just as supply declines from the rest of the world. Employing a Panamax vessel better suited to carrying coal or steel was one of the responses to a Norwegian government program seeking ways to solve the parasite problem and stop farmed fish from escaping into the open sea. Winning proposals will get coveted farming licenses at reduced prices.

“It’s more or less kick-starting fish farming again in a new way,” Alf-Helge Aarskog, chief executive officer of Marine Harvest, said in an interview last month after the application was submitted.


Global salmon production will fall about 7 percent to 2.15 million metric tons this year, according to Nordea Bank. Along with the lice outbreak, an algae bloom this year has curbed output from No. 2 producer Chile, where stricter farming rules may limit expansion, the Oslo-based bank said. Norwegian salmon prices have tripled since 2011 and reached a record 69.44 krone ($8.36) a kilogram on June 19, according to Statistics Norway.

Norway’s aquaculture industry spent 5 billion krone last year trying to eradicate sea lice, Aarskog said. The pest thrives near the shore in the top 7 to 8 meters (23 to 26 feet) of water. The Panamax concept would work by taking in water from below that level.

Marine Harvest, based in Bergen, Norway, pitched other ideas, too. Two proposals were to raise salmon in specially built, enclosed structures shaped like eggs or donuts by the shore. Another involved building a caged farm that can be submersed offshore, deep in the ocean.




Feasible Methods

Norway’s incentive program may make the proposals financially viable, said Aarskog, who wouldn’t disclose the cost of building prototype farms. Buying an existing conventional license from another company -- if one were available -- would probably cost about 60 million krone, but the government will charge just 10 million krone for a permit for a feasible new project, he said.

Marine Harvest doesn’t know how long it will take for the government to decide on its projects, Aarskog said. Each of the prototype farms would take about six months to develop, and the fish need another 12 to 15 months to grow big enough to harvest.

Norway is also giving companies the chance to better exploit existing capacity to boost production now. They can pay 1.5 million krone to farm more during the best growing period, but less during other times of the year, the Fisheries Ministry said Thursday.

Cheaper Ships

It’s also a good time to buy a cargo ship. A construction binge fueled by higher freight rates doubled vessel capacity in the past decade, while shipments of cargoes such as coal and iron ore have expanded at a slower pace. Daily rates to hire Panamaxes have plunged by 94 percent since 2007. Billionaire oil and shipping tycoon John Fredriksen is Marine Harvest’s biggest shareholder.

Buying a 10-year-old ship would cost about $7 million and modifying it with six holding tanks for fish may cost another $2.5 million to $5 million, said Erik Stavseth, an analyst at Oslo-based investment bank Arctic Securities. That would put the total bill, including the government license, at about $18 million, less than half as much as building a conventional farm may cost, he said.

Dozens of companies have submitted applications, but the only one approved so far is from SalMar ASA, Norway’s third-biggest producer, to develop an offshore farm far out in the ocean where sea lice can’t survive.

There are a “lot of interesting concepts,” said Kolbjorn Giskeodegard, an Oslo-based analyst at Nordea Bank who covers the seafood industry. “A lot of these concepts probably will fail or need heavy modification. Some of them will prove to be viable, but there’s also a question of cost.”

My Fishies doing some nice stuff... I Think...

Port Update :

NPN +45 % (65 % of Port)  (B)
OCE +9 % (26 % of Port)   (HB)
KIO +45 % (2.6 % of Port)   (HS)

Port 2.

BIL + 21 % (93 % of Port) (HB)

Port Update :

NPN +47 % (65 % of Port)  (B)
OCE +10 % (26 % of Port)   (HB)
KIO +36 % (2.6 % of Port)   (HS)

Port 2.

BIL + 10 % (92 % of Port) (HB)