Guildford: Grant Thornton advises Supermassive Games on investment
Grant Thornton UK LLP’s corporate finance team, led by UK technology, media and telecoms lead and global head of M&A Andy Morgan, supported by associate director Will Rose has advised the vendors of fast-growing video games developer Supermassive Games on their minority sale to Nordisk Games.
The Guildford–based company, which has around 200 staff, is behind the immersive Dark Pictures Anthology series which is enjoyed by gamers on a range of platforms including PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Revenues at Supermassive Games have seen strong growth over recent years, rising from £9 million in 2018 to £16m in 2019.
The acquirer, Denmark-based Nordisk Games, is part of one of Scandinavia’s largest media groups, Egmont, and is building a portfolio of leading games studios in Europe.
The deal will see Nordisk Games take 30.7% ownership of Supermassive Games and will help facilitate the development of further game titles alongside the existing Dark Pictures Anthology.
Rose said: “The founders of Supermassive Games, Pete and Joe Samuels, have done a brilliant job in building one of the UK’s leading independent games studios. The deal with Nordisk will allow them to accelerate their recent growth and build on the success of the Dark Pictures Anthology.
“The UK creative and digital sector is truly world-leading, as evidenced by the strong appetite we are seeing from trade and financial buyers, including the stand-out $1b+ acquisition of Codemasters by Electronic Arts which Grant Thornton was also involved in.”
Joe Samuels, shareholder of Supermassive Games said, “Grant Thornton provided invaluable support to the transaction. Technically they were able to support the more complex areas, and in particular Will Rose was able to represent our business potential in challenging market dynamics.”
Alongside the lead advisory team, Grant Thornton’s tax team advised the shareholders and the company. The tax team comprised David Willott, Tom Rodwell and Chris Tysoe.
