Business daily Vedomosti reports that Wargaming, the owner and distributor of Wargaming.net producer is going to purchase 30% of Cyprus’s bank Hellenic at €40 million. The company is planning to take part in a follow-on offering by the bank in the country where its shares are being traded.
Apart from Wargaming, the bank’s shares were also purchased by two investments funds. However, over half of the shares still remain at disposal of the former lender’s owners. The newspaper notes that the game producer’s decision to acquire a share in the bank’s capital could have been caused by the fact that Wargaming’s money was “trapped” there after the Cyprian financial crisis. Besides, there is also an option that the company located on the island is going to streamline payments this way.
The company has got available means for investments owing to the profit-making financial activity. In the first 6 months of 2013, the game entrepreneurs raised €234 million, the bigger amount than for the whole previous year. For the two recent years, the company has carried out a few costly purchases on the game market.
The financial crisis on Cyprus in 2012 caused the situation when a lot of financial institutions in the country found themselves on the brink of collapse and their shares were bought out by the Russians. Such purchase deals were executed as a forced solution since this was the only way how Russian deposit owners could avoid losing their money completely.
Meanwhile, Hellenic bank suffered from the crisis least of all. Earlier, a local Orthodox church had been considered as its final beneficiary.
For reference, Wargaming has been one of the most successful game producers on the post-Soviet space. Its main software development center is situated in Minsk. The company was set up in 1998 by Belarusian student Viktor Kisliy who has been still in charge. World of tanks being a tank battle simulator has enjoyed the most popularity compared to other games produced by the company.
