Staff of Reuters 2 minutes Read (Reuters) – MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) – Nexters Global, a video game producer that hopes to debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange this year thanks to a deal with a Russian special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), reported a 48 percent increase in first-quarter sales on Thursday. The company that created the popular games Hero Wars and Throne Rush was started in Russia in 2010 but is now based in Cyprus. Its revenues have increased throughout the pandemic, as have those of other game companies. In February, Nexters reached an agreement to list publicly with the Kismet Acquisition One Corp SPAC. The deal gave Nexters a $1.9 billion valuation and is expected to finalize in 2021. Nexters said in a statement that sales increased by 48 percent in the first quarter, with bookings increasing 15 percent to $113 million. Despite cautious forecasts of post-COVID trends in the wider sector, it stated this result has allowed it to improve its 2021 bookings forecast. Bookings for 2021 have increased by 38% to about $610 million, according to the business. It did not repeat its previous prediction. “When the pandemic is over, our games will continue to be entertaining,” CEO Andrey Fadeev stated. Kismet, founded by Ivan Tavrin, the former CEO of Russian telecoms business Megafon, raised $250 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq in August 2020 to invest in telecommunications, technology, consumer goods, and services. Kismet said in February that it would increase its investment in Nexters, one of Europe’s top five independent game developers, to $150 million. The founders of Nexters, Fadeev and Boris Gertsovsky, as well as the creators of game developer Playrix, Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, bought a 43 percent stake in the company in 2018. (Alexander Marrow contributed reporting.) Mark Potter edited the piece.)/n
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