Chinese poultry trader in talks to buy Brink dev, Splash Damage

Chinese poultry trader Leyou is in talks to buy Brink and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition developer Splash Damage from founder Paul Wedgwood. 

The news come straight from the Hong Kong stock exchange, with Leyou explaining it has conditionally agreed to acquire Splash Damage and its daughter companies Fireteam and Warchest. 

All three targets are expected to become wholly-owned subsidiaries of Radius Maxima, a subsidiary of Leyou Technologies.

Although it's unclear precisely how much the purchase will cost Leyou, the company has said that under no circumstances will it exceed $150 million. 

While a video game developer might seem like a strange buy for a firm focused on the trading and manufacturing of chicken, this isn't Leyou's first foray into the games industry.

In July last year, the company bought a 58 percent stake in Warframe developer Digital Extremes with the aim of diversifying its business and mitigating the "volatile and cynical nature of the poultry business."

"[We] will focus on building a diversified portfolio of profitable video gaming studios with strong IPs and franchises, innovative business models and world class production capacity in more developed markets that have proved their success in developing high-end video games," wrote the company. 

So far, it seems to be a plan that's working, with 70 percent of Leyou's gross profit for the year ended December 31, 2015, heralding from the games industry.