CDC Corporation, the Chinese software group, is thought to be among those interested in buying SCi Entertainment, the British-based videogames developer behind Lara Croft.

Shares in SCi were up 5 per cent at 338p in morning deals today, valuing the company at about £293 million.

In September SCi revealed that it had received a takeover approach — the second in two years — but has given no further update.

The group declined to comment today.

Since news of the latest approach emerged, Ubisoft, the French rival that held preliminary discussions with SCi and was widely seen as the front-runner to take control of the group, has ruled itself out.

NBC, the American broadcaster that had shown interest, has also distanced itself from the sale process.

Meanwhile, Time Warner, which owns a 10.3 per cent stake in SCi, so far has declined to comment on its intentions but is thought to be weighing a bid.

The Nasdaq-listed CDC spans online games, mobile phone software, business software and services and China.com, the web portal.

CDC specialises in "massive multiplayer" online games, where tens of millions of players can compete with one another. The company claims more than 100 million registered users and its titles have won accolades in the China Game Industry Annual Conference for the past three years running.

In March 2007, it created CDC Games Studio, to establish relationships with outside developers of online games. In August, CDC Games International was formed to launch new games internationally.

Acquiring SCi would instantly revamp the Chinese company’s business model. So far CDC has licensed games from other companies rather than developing new titles.

SCi, most famous for the Tomb Raider series of games, featuring Lara Croft, made a £30 million pre-tax loss last year, down from an £8.1 million profit a year earlier.

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