The CEO of Embracer Group answered questions about the division of the holding into three companies and shared his plans for business development

For at least two years, Swedish holding company Embracer Group has fallen on hard times. The coronavirus pandemic, the general world crisis, excessive studio acquisitions, an exorbitant team and a number of unsuccessful big-budget games have brought the company to crisis.

Embracer Group has already significantly reduced its workforce, cancelled a number of games, including the development of the long-awaited Deus Ex sequel, closed several studios, including Volition, and sold to Gearbox and Saber Interactive. And a few days ago, Embracer Group executives announced that the holding company would be split into three separate companies: the Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.

Despite the detailed explanation of the separation of the firm, there are still some unanswered questions, which Embracer Group founder and CEO Lars Wingefors hastened to answer.

Here's What We Know

Wingefors believes that clearly separating the lines of business will allow companies to "create successful plays", "improve business financing" and "lower the cost of capital".

Diversifying the company's capital and working on a specific line of business will allow it to attract new investors and obtain additional funding, which is important as Embracer Group has not received sufficient infusions since the end of 2022. Wingefors noted that the corporation had $1.5 billion in debt in 2023, but the sale of Saber and Gearbox has reduced that amount to $963 million.

Further payment of the debt is assigned to Asmodee Group, because, engaged in the release of board games, it is this company has the most stable and predictable income.

Lars Wingefors plans to set up a new organisation for investor relations. In the near future, Embracer Group will completely drop its name, but a new one has not yet been announced. And, Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends are also temporary names. Coffee Stain will separate from Embracer Group in 2025 and become a fully independent company.

Finally, Lars Wingefors said that his team's plans cover not only games, but also other media projects. Recall that Embracer owns the rights to release projects on the universe of "The Lord of the Rings" (The Lord of the Rings) and it seems that in the future the public will expect films, TV series and other content on this series.

Source: Games Industry.biz