The Public Investment Fund (PIF) from Saudi Arabia sold 17.3 million shares of Nintendo between August 21 and October 1, 2024. Bloomberg reported this information citing the fund's report to Japan's Ministry of Finance.
As a result, the PIF's stake in Nintendo decreased from 8.58% to 7.54%. The fund remains one of the largest shareholders of the Japanese company, but the reason behind its decision to sell part of its shares is unknown.
Interestingly, last week, Saudi Arabian Prince and Vice-Chairman of Savvy Games Group, a subsidiary of PIF, Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, mentioned in an interview with Kyodo News that the fund may eventually purchase more shares of Japanese gaming companies, including Nintendo. The recent sale of some shares was not mentioned in the discussion.
To recall, PIF first invested in Nintendo in May 2022, acquiring 5.01% of the company's shares. At the time, Nintendo claimed that it learned about the purchase from the news. According to media reports, this acquisition cost PIF $3 billion.
Besides Nintendo, PIF's portfolio currently includes shares of gaming companies such as Take-Two Interactive, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Koei Tecmo, NCSOFT, Capcom, and Nexon. Next year, the fund plans to transfer all of them to Savvy Games Group.