Colo­gne, Germany — Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advi­sed Modern Times Group MTG AB (MTG) on the sale of ESL Gaming to Savvy Gaming Group (SGG). ESL Gaming is valued at an enter­prise value of $1.05 billion. MTG holds 91.46 percent of ESL Gaming.

ESL Gaming is the world’s largest inde­pen­dent esports company (Photo © ESL Gaming). Follo­wing the tran­sac­tion, MTG will fully focus on acce­le­ra­ting the growth of its pure-play gaming busi­ness. MTG intends to distri­bute at least 40 percent of the net proceeds to its share­hol­ders, while the rema­in­der of the proceeds will be used to streng­then MTG’s posi­tion in the global gaming market and to further imple­ment its buy-and-build strategy.

SGG also acqui­res FACEIT at the same time and will merge the two compa­nies into the leading global plat­form in the compe­ti­tive gaming sector — the ESL FACEIT Group. The tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory appr­oval, which includes an anti­trust and foreign trade review.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by London part­ners Sean Murphy and Clemen­tine Hogarth and Frank­furt part­ner Nils Rahlf.

“The sale of ESL will enable MTG to focus on its gaming busi­ness and we are plea­sed to have successfully part­ne­red with MTG on this exci­ting tran­sac­tion. Norton Rose Fulbright’s M&A prac­tice has had a dyna­mic start to 2022, and we expect this to conti­nue,” says Nils Rahlf.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team also included senior asso­cia­tes Victo­ria Scopes and Jan-Peter Heise and asso­cia­tes Jessica Berke­ley and Rebecca Lander.

Addi­tio­nal support was provi­ded by London part­ners Michael Black, Mike Knap­per, Domi­nic Stut­taford and Michael Allis­ton, Frank­furt part­ner Tino Duttiné and Hamburg part­ner Tim Scha­per, as well as senior asso­cia­tes Kyle Rains­ford and Alex Redbourne.

The law firm has alre­ady advi­sed MTG on the acqui­si­tion of shares in Inno­Ga­mes GmbH (Inno­Ga­mes) and on the acqui­si­tion of Hutch Games Ltd (Hutch).

About ESL Gaming

Colo­gne — ESL Gaming is the world’s leading esports company. For more than two deca­des, we have been shaping the indus­try and leading esports and gaming inno­va­tion globally across the most popu­lar video games, crea­ting a compre­hen­sive ecosys­tem with oppor­tu­ni­ties for play­ers to go from zero to hero, and for fans to witness the best stories esports has to offer.

About MTG

Stock­holm — MTG is a pure-play esport and gaming invest­ment company. We have a port­fo­lio of compa­nies in two verti­cals, esport and gaming, compri­sing some of the stron­gest brands in the indus­try. MTG stri­ves to be the part­ner of choice for esport and gaming entre­pre­neurs, brin­ging indus­trial exper­tise, know-how and finan­cial flexi­bi­lity. We have an active owner­ship approach, working in close colla­bo­ra­tion with our port­fo­lio compa­nies to drive long-term profi­ta­bi­lity and sustainable growth. www.mtg.com

About Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global busi­ness law firm. With more than 4,000 lawy­ers in over 50 offices world­wide in Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Austra­lia, Africa and the Middle East, we advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal companies.

We offer our clients compre­hen­sive advice in all major indus­tries. These include Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons; Energy; Infra­struc­ture, Mining and Commo­di­ties; Trans­por­ta­tion; Tech­no­logy and Inno­va­tion; and Life Scien­ces and Health­care. Our global Risk Advi­sory Group combi­nes this exten­sive indus­try expe­ri­ence with its exper­tise in legal, regu­la­tory, compli­ance and gover­nance matters. This enables us to provide our clients with prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons to the legal and regu­la­tory risks they face.

The Swiss asso­cia­tion Norton Rose Fulbright helps to coor­di­nate the acti­vi­ties of Norton Rose Fulbright members, but does not provide legal advice to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities world­wide, inclu­ding London, Hous­ton, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johan­nes­burg. For more infor­ma­tion, visit nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.