Ah, remember 2019? Such a terrible year, made good only in hindsight. Throughout that year, we wrote about how RuneScape developer Jagex was put up for sale by the Chinese holding company that purchased it back in 2016, largely a result of Shanghai Fukong’s struggles to stay afloat through the gaming freeze in China rather than any problem on RuneScape’s part. Last June, Fukong announced that it would be selling Jagex to “US Platinum Fortune,” valuing it at $530M US ($230M more than it paid back in 2016). A few weeks later, Jagex denied it had been sold, saying that sale was merely “one of various possible outcomes.” Then in April of this year, Jagex admitted it was indeed sold for $530M to Macarthur Fortune, which turns out to be the fund manager for Platinum Fortune. End of story, right?
Maybe not so much. As MMO Fallout reports, a lawsuit was filed earlier this month in a London court on behalf of China Minsheng Trust Co. Ltd. (CMT), which alleges that it still owns 45% of the equity of Shanghai Fukong under Chinese law thanks to a loan CMT issued in 2017, meaning the sale of Jagex, Shanghai Fukong’s only redeeming asset, to Platinum Fortune was faulty.
“[CMT] seeks an order in the form of the attached to enable proceedings to be brought against the defendant in England and Wales to establish that SHNT remains the shareholder of the defendant and/or rectify the register of members of under Section 125 of the Companies Act 2006,” the attorneys say.
So that just got a lot more interesting. Will we ever have a year go by when Jagex isn’t being kicked around like an industry hacky-sack?
