In 2023, Wang Jianlin is facing tremendous pressure to solve the problem of more than 30 billion bets. The latest news that Wanda Films will be taken over by Chinese Confucianism has raised eyebrows. Chinese Confucianism, as a dark horse that suddenly appeared, was not well known before. But in fact, there is a mysterious and interesting development process behind Chinese Confucianism.
The predecessor of China Ruyi was HengTen Network, which was jointly established by Evergrande and Tencent, and was initially engaged in the Internet community business. Subsequently, HengTen Network completed the backdoor listing through the acquisition of Masger Group. In 2020, HengTen Network wholly acquired Ruyi Pictures and Pumpkin Films for up to 7.2 billion **, and completed the restructuring. The acquisition made Ke Liming, the majority shareholder of Ruyi Pictures, the de facto controller of HengTen Networks.
However, in 2021, Evergrande fell into a financial crisis and began to sell off the shares of HengTen Network, cashing out more than 10 billion. With the withdrawal of Xu Jiayin, Ke Liming became the largest shareholder of China Ruyi, and Tencent became the second largest shareholder. Ke Liming studied in Australia and has a master's degree in finance, and is one of the few bigwigs in the film industry with a financial background. Despite his low profile, he has released many successful low-budget films in recent years, such as "Hello, Lee Hwan Young", "Send You a Little Red Flower", "Good Luck", "Animal World" and "Sewing Machine Band". These films have achieved good results at the box office and word of mouth.
In 2022, HengTen Network changed its name to China Ruyi. According to the financial report at the end of last year, Ke Liming held 3726%, becoming the largest shareholder of China Ruyi, Tencent holds 2045%。In July this year, China Ruyi carried out a round of financing of 4 billion yuan, and Tencent subscribed a lot. After the financing was completed, China Ruyi invested the funds in film and television and game expansion. Among them, the move to take over a 49% stake in Wanda Investment is eye-catching. Wanda Film has 704 directly-operated cinemas across the country, with a total of 6,110 screens, and is one of the world's leading film companies.
Wanda Film is the main platform of Wanda Group, and Wang Jianlin is at the helm. However, in order to solve the VAM problem, Wang Jianlin chose to give 51% of the shares of Wanda Investment held by ** to China Ruyi. Prior to this, Wanda Investment owned a 20% stake in Wanda Films, which is also the main support of Wanda Group for Wanda Films. In July, Wanda transferred a 49 percent stake in Wanda Investment to China Ruyi. Upon completion of the transaction, Wanda will completely lose control of Wanda Films, and China Ruyi will take over the company.
Wanda Film's core asset is that it has 704 directly-operated cinemas across the country, with a total of 6,110 screens. This scale is also one of the largest in the world. At present, the three core businesses of China Ruyi are Pumpkin Films, Ruyi Pictures and Jingxiu Games. If successful, the acquisition of Wanda Film will further strengthen its strength in the Chinese film field, and it is expected to become one of the largest film and television groups, and expand its offline cinema business.
Wanda Films was listed in 2015 and has been in a state of loss for many years due to the epidemic and other reasons. However, since the beginning of this year, Wanda Films has begun to turn losses into profits, and the development momentum has gradually picked up. For Wanda Group, Wanda Films is undoubtedly one of its core assets. Wanda Group's most important industry is the hundreds of Wanda Plazas located across the country, with retail, food and beverage and film as its three core businesses. To a large extent, Wanda Plaza's ** volume depends on the support of Wanda Films.
However, it is not surprising that Wang Jianlin has relinquished control of Wanda Films, mainly due to the high pressure he is currently facing. Of course, there is an intricate relationship between Wanda, Tencent, and Chinese Confucianism. In 2018, Tencent invested 34 billion yuan in Wanda Commercial with Suning, Sunac and JD.com. At the same time, Tencent is also a shareholder of China Ruyi and played a matchmaking role in the acquisition.
With the completion of China Ruyi's acquisition of Wanda Films, a new giant will be born in the Chinese film industry, and the original shareholder Xu Jiayin is a little powerless. Not long ago, he was imprisoned.
2023 is indeed a difficult year for China's bigwigs. The complexity of the situation and challenges has forced many industry leaders to make major decisions. In the film industry, Wanda Film has been in a state of loss due to the epidemic, and Wang Jianlin made the decision to take a controlling stake while being under great pressure. And China Ruyi, with its strong strength and resources behind it, has become a strong contender to take over Wanda Films.
The rapid rise of China's film industry is inseparable from the vigorous development of the domestic market. With the increase of Chinese people's income and the increase in demand for culture and entertainment, the scale of the film market continues to expand, and the requirements for film content and quality are also increasing. The successful acquisition of China Ruyi is not only a reflection of its own strength, but also indicates the better development of China's film industry.