Supercell pays $55.8 million for 62% of London-based Space Ape Games.

Supercell, a Helsinki, Finland-based mobile gaming company, announced the acquisition of 62% of the shares of Space Ape Games.

The transaction is part of Supercell' strategy of acquiring global games publishers as sales growth from its games stagnated in 2016. The company has previously acquired Finnish games start-up Frogmind and invested in Shipyard Games.

Space Ape Games, based in London, UK and led by CEO John Earner, has launched three mobile games, attracting 35m downloads and $100m in revenues over five years. Some of its titles include games such as Rival Kingdoms and Transformers: Earth Wars.

Supercell, owned by Chinese internet group Tencent and led by CEO Ilkka Panaanen, is the author of Clash of Clans, a war strategy game, which has remained on the list of top-earning applications since its launch in 2012.

The deal allows Space Ape to continue to operate as an independent company - similar to the way Supercell operates with its owner, Tencent,