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(Bloomberg) -- Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Ubisoft Entertainment SA’s founding Guillemot family are considering creating a new venture that would include certain Ubisoft assets as they seek to boost the French video-game company’s value, people familiar with the situation said.
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The Chinese technology firm and the Guillemot family are evaluating which assets to include in a new entity and their valuation, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. A potential deal would allow Tencent to own a stake in the venture and gain more control over some of Ubisoft’s intellectual properties, while boosting its video game business outside of China, the people said.
Shares of Ubisoft rose as much as 4.3% on Wednesday, their biggest intraday gain in almost three weeks, following the Bloomberg News report. The stock has slumped about 47% in the past 12 months, giving the company a market value of about $1.6 billion. In September, Ubisoft lowered its outlook and said it was delaying the debut of its Assassin’s Creed Shadows game from November to February. Last week, it delayed the popular franchise again to March 20.
Deliberations are ongoing and no final decisions have been made, the people said. A representative for Tencent declined to comment. A spokesperson for Ubisoft referred to the company’s Jan. 9 announcement, when it said it had appointed advisors to review and pursue various options to boost value, declining to comment until that process has been completed.
Bloomberg News reported in October that Tencent and the Guillemot family were speaking with advisers on ways to stabilize Ubisoft and bolster its value after its share price plunged. A buyout was one of the options under consideration, people familiar with the matter have said.
Tencent and the Guillemot family owned 25.4% of Ubisoft’s share capital and 29.6% of the voting rights as of March 31, Ubisoft’s annual report shows.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration added Tencent to its list of “Chinese military companies” — firms it says are working directly or indirectly with the People’s Liberation Army, or contributing significantly to China’s industrial base. While the list carries no specific sanctions, unlike the Commerce Department’s Entity List, it still discourages US firms from dealing with its members and amounts to a reputational hit for the firms involved.