Keywords splashes $6 million on Asian art services provider Red Hot CG

Keywords Studios has continued its acquisition spree with the purchase of art services provider Red Hot CG for a cool $6 million.

The company, which operated under the holding company Strongbox but trades as Red Hot, specialises in the production of graphical art assets for games.

Red Hot houses some 220 artists across its offices in China and Indonesia, which takes the number of employees and contractors Keywords employs as artists to over 1,000.

The art services provider has previously worked with clients such as Tencent, Sony, Bethesda, Capcom and Activision.

Hot deal

To finance the deal Keywords will be paying $4.35 million in cash, $1 million of which will be deferred for three years. The remainder will be satisfied by the issue of 160,842 new ordinary shares in Keywords.

"The acquisition of Red Hot further strengthens our fast growing, higher margin art services business, enhancing our unique client proposition which combines operations close to our clients, in the US and Canada, with those in lower cost locations across Asia,” said Keywords CEO Andrew Day.

“Following the acquisition, we believe the Keywords Art Service Line is the leading player in the outsourced market in terms of capacity and breadth of service. We warmly welcome Red Hot’s highly talented teams to the growing Keywords family and we look forward to continuing to build upon its excellent reputation and loyal client base as part of the Group.”