(Yicai Global) June 28  -- China's Fukong Interactive Entertainment will sell its overseas  businesses, including British gaming arm Jagex, its major driver of  revenue, in order to pay off debt. 

Fukong penned a deal with  US Platinum Fortune, valuing Jagex at USD530 million and giving Hongtou  Network Hong Kong a value of zero, the Shanghai-based game developer  said in a statement yesterday.

The firm is selling the  units in order to obtain funds and repay most of its maturing debts, it  said, adding that after this, Fukong will focus on developing domestic  mobile games. The company has  been involved in 57 litigation and arbitration cases as of yesterday,  most of which were related to financial and credit disputes, involving  about CNY8.1 billion (USD1.2 billion) in capital.

Hongtou manages Jagex, a Cambridge-based developer of RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, free-to-play  massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Last year, Jagex  generated CNY818 million in revenue, which equaled 99.5 percent of that  of Fukong. Its net profit attributable to Hongtou was CNY398 million  that year. 

Fukong's [SHA: 600634] share price has risen 4 percent to CNY2.30 (US 30 cents) today.

Editor: Emmi Laine