(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