Chapter 371 Huayi Brothers

Although the scale of O2 Telecom is still inferior to that of British Telecom, in terms of comprehensive strength, O2 Telecom is still in the third position in the UK, especially after completing the acquisition of Czech Telecom. With the expansion of its market, subsequent equipment orders are enough to make Marconi Company "full".

Therefore, Barron was negotiating with Marconi based on this point. In addition, he already held more than 30% of the shares of this company and was continuing to absorb them. Barron was not afraid that this company would not give in.

Because now for Marconi Company, being acquired is already their best result.

So who will choose to acquire it?

Barron believes that after comprehensive consideration, the other party will make a wise choice.

…

Just when Barron and Liu Xiping had just finished talking about Marconi Company, his phone vibrated.

"You answer the phone first."

Liu Yanping glanced at the caller ID on the phone screen and said to Barron:

"It's Mr. Wang from Huayi Brothers..."

Seeing Barron's understanding expression, he picked up his phone and walked out of the room.

Just a few minutes later, Liu Xiping returned to the room and said to Barron:

"Mr. Wang is planning to hold a celebration banquet tonight for this cooperation. They know that you are in Yanjing now, so they want to invite you..."

Previously at the Gucci Group headquarters in Italy, Barron mentioned to De Sol that the promotion and marketing of the Gucci brand in the Chinese market should be strengthened, including embedding the brand in film and television dramas to instill in the public that the Gucci brand is The concept of top luxury brands.

At this time, Huayi Brothers was developing relatively well among private film and television production companies in China, so Liu Xiping contacted the company on behalf of Rich23 Capital and talked about investing in it.

Speaking of Huayi Brothers, I’m afraid everyone knows that it will be very famous in the future...

In 1994, Wang Zhongjun returned to China to start a business after graduating from the United States, and together with his brother Wang Zhonglei, he established Huayi Brothers Advertising Company.

Yes, Huayi Brothers originally started from advertising...

At that time, domestic banks did not yet have unified logos, but in the United States, the logos of companies of slightly larger scale all had unified designs.

Seeing this, Wang Zhongjun began to lobby major banks to design a unified logo, which was quickly recognized by the banks.

As a result, Huayi Brothers, which was founded less than a year ago, received a corporate image standardization order from Hua Xia Bank for 15,000 outlets across the country.

Soon afterwards, Wang Zhongjun won orders from large enterprises such as Yanhuang Bank, PetroChina, State Electric Power, and China Unicom.

Since then, Huayi Brothers Advertising Company has grown rapidly, with annual sales reaching 600 million, and it became one of the top ten advertising companies in China in just three years.

In 1997, Wang Zhongjun participated in Yingda's TV series "Psychological Clinic" by chance.

With an investment of only 5 million yuan, "Psychological Clinic" made Huayi Brothers a net profit of more than 4 million yuan, with a return rate of more than 90%. This also made them realize the wealth and opportunities that the film and television industry can bring.

In 1998, Feng Pants' movie "Endless" had a total investment of 6 million yuan. In addition to Forbidden City Pictures, the investors also needed to attract some social capital.

At a party, Wang Zhongjun met Feng Pants and quickly invested 300,000 yuan into the game. Later, the box office of "Endless" exceeded 30 million yuan, becoming the box office champion of the year.

This investment made Wang Zhongjun and Feng Pengtong feel like old friends at first sight.

Since then, almost all of Feng Pants's films have been funded by Huayi Brothers. With the success of more than a dozen films such as "Big Shot" and "Mobile Phone", Feng Pants has become a popular first-line director in the industry, and Huayi Brothers has also graduated from an advertising company. It has become a leading enterprise in China's film and television industry.

However, at this time, Huayi Brothers had not yet developed to its later scale. Although it had already gained a certain degree of popularity in China, the film and television industry had not yet ushered in its golden development period, so the scale of their company was not large.

When they learned that Rich23 Capital was going to invest in their company, the Wang brothers were a little confused at first, but after asking about the investment company through their friends, they immediately became enthusiastic...

Because although Rich23 is indeed not well-known outside the investment circle, those who know something about China's Internet investment will know that this investment company has successively participated in the financing of Penguin, Alibaba and Baidu, especially for Alibaba. In their last round of financing, Rich23 Capital invested a full US$150 million and held a lot of shares in Alibaba and Taobao.

These companies invested by Rich23 Capital are all well-known companies in China's Internet industry at this time. Penguin Company was listed in Hong Kong last year, and Baidu Company is about to go public in the United States.

Most importantly, there are rumors that Rich23 has a close relationship with the British Duke Barron Cavendish, who was well-known in China at this time and ranked sixth on the Forbes Global Rich List last year. After all, he invested in Alibaba. Among them, the relationship between Rich23 Capital and DS Capital will also make people speculate...

After some contact and negotiation, Rich23 Capital will eventually invest US$2 million (approximately 15 million Chinese dollars) to acquire 15% of Huayi Brothers’ shares.

Prior to this, Huayi Brothers had two shareholders, namely Wang Brothers and Taihe Holdings.

This starts after Huayi Brothers entered the film and television industry...

Since movies are a high-investment, high-return industry, a large amount of capital is required as leverage investment in the early stage.

However, due to the constraints of China's domestic policies and economic environment at that time, Huayi Brothers basically had no chance to obtain bank loans or venture capital.

However, relying solely on their own accumulation can no longer satisfy the appetite of the Wang brothers.

So Wang Zhongjun took advantage of his familiar relationships with some entrepreneurs and began to introduce capital.

In June 2000, Huayi Brothers Taihe Television Investment Company was established. At that time, Taihe Holdings’ business was mainly in real estate and finance. It had sufficient funds and was looking for new investment points.

Therefore, in March 2000, Huayi Brothers and Taihe each invested 25 million yuan to form Huayi Brothers Taihe Television Investment Co., Ltd., with the Wang brothers holding 50% of the shares.

In 2001, the Wang brothers repurchased 5% of the shares from Taihe Holdings and had absolute controlling rights at a 55% ratio. Later, Huayi Brothers Taihe changed its name to Huayi Brothers.

It was Taihe's investment of 25 million yuan that enabled Huayi Brothers to quickly complete its initial expansion in the production field.

Through this investment, Huayi Brothers invested in a large number of well-received and popular films by the end of 2004, and together with Feng Pants, pioneered the Chinese "New Year film" model.

A series of "Lunar New Year films" have brought Huayi Brothers considerable profits and growing reputation.

Just on November 10 last year, the China State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Commerce announced the "Interim Regulations on Film Enterprise Business Qualifications", allowing foreign-funded companies to get involved in film production, distribution and screening in mainland China.

At the end of November, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Sino-foreign Joint Ventures and Cooperative Radio and Television Program Production and Operation Enterprises", which clearly allows foreign-funded companies to get involved in the field of radio and television program production and distribution in mainland China, provided that the Chinese side maintains The shares shall not be less than 51%.

These two regulations proposed for the first time that social capital can establish film production companies and film technology companies. They also proposed for the first time that foreign capital can establish film production, film technology and radio, film and television program production companies through joint ventures and cooperation.

Its purpose is to vigorously promote the development of China's radio, film and television industry by lowering entry barriers, expanding cooperation areas, and absorbing foreign funds, technology, and experience.

It is also because of this that Rich23 Capital was able to complete its investment in Huayi Brothers. In this investment, Rich23 Capital used part of its funds to purchase shares from Taihe Holdings; the other part of the capital invested in the shares.

In the end, Huayi Brothers' shareholding became 50% held by Wang Brothers, 15% held by Rich23 Capital, and 35% held by Taihe Holdings.