What this is
How many times its money Nintendo made on the shareholding it sold in the year to March 2026: about 29 times.
How it’s built
- Divide sale proceeds of ¥33.8bn by the stake’s book cost of ¥1.16bn (proceeds minus the reported ¥32.7bn gain), both from Nintendo’s annual securities report.
What we assumed
- The stake sold was Nintendo’s 2015 investment in Niantic.It was Nintendo’s only equity sale that year, its cost predates 2019, and Nikkei names Nintendo among Niantic shareholders paid out; no document names it.
- Book cost equals what Nintendo originally paid.Write-downs would only lower book value, so the true multiple on cost could be somewhat lower.
Sanity check
Nintendo invested in Niantic in October 2015 in a $20m round, with a further amount tied to milestones; a ¥1.16bn cost fits that scale.
Where it comes from
Our calculation from other figures in the trainer’s notes.