Although O2 Telecom is not as big as British Telecom, in terms of comprehensive strength, O2 Telecom still ranks third in the UK, especially after completing the acquisition of Czech Telecom. With the expansion of its market, subsequent equipment orders will be enough to make Marconi "well-fed".
Therefore, Baron used this point to negotiate with Marconi. In addition, since he already held more than 30% of the company's shares and was still in the process of acquiring more, he was not afraid that the company would not comply.
Because now for Marconi, being acquired is already the best outcome for them.
So who will choose to acquire it?
Baron believes that after comprehensive consideration, the other party will make a wise choice.
…
Just when Barron had finished talking with Liu Chiping about Marconi Company, his cell phone vibrated.
"You answer the phone first."
Liu Chiping glanced at the caller ID on his phone 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 Chiping returned to the room and said to Barron,
"Boss 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, Baron had mentioned to De Sole the need to intensify the promotion and marketing of the Gucci brand in the Chinese market. This would include implanting the brand in film and television dramas to instill in the public the concept that the Gucci brand is the top luxury brand.
At that time, Huayi Brothers was considered to be developing relatively well among China's private film and television production companies, so Liu Chiping contacted the other party on behalf of Rich23 Capital to discuss investment and shareholding.
Speaking of Huayi Brothers, I'm afraid everyone knows that it will be very well-known in the future...
In 1994, after graduating from the United States, Wang Zhongjun returned to China to start a business and founded Huayi Brothers Advertising Company with his brother Wang Zhonglei.
Yes, Huayi Brothers Company started out as an advertising company...
At that time, domestic banks did not have a unified logo, but in America, all corporate logos of a certain size had a unified design.
Seeing this, Wang Zhongjun began to lobby major banks to design a unified logo, which was soon recognized by the banks.
As a result, Huayi Brothers, which had been established for less than a year, received an order for corporate image standardization for 15,000 branches of Hua Xia Bank across the country.
Soon afterwards, Wang Zhongjun won orders from large enterprises such as Yanhuang Bank, China National Petroleum Corporation, State Grid Corporation of China, and China Unicom.
Since then, Huayi Brothers Advertising Company has grown rapidly, with annual sales reaching 600 million yuan, and in just three years it has become one of the top ten advertising companies in China.
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 begin to realize the wealth and opportunities that the film and television industry can bring.
In 1998, Feng Kuzi's movie "Never Ending" had a total investment of 6 million yuan. In addition to the Forbidden City Pictures, the investor also needed to attract some social capital.
At a party, Wang Zhongjun met Feng Kuzi and quickly invested 300,000 yuan - later, the box office of "Never Ending" exceeded 30 million yuan, becoming the box office champion of the year.
This investment made Wang Zhongjun and Feng Kuazi hit it off immediately.
Since then, almost all of Feng Kuzi's films were funded by Huayi Brothers. With the success of more than ten films such as "Big Shot" and "Cell Phone", Feng Kuzi became a hot first-line director in the circle, and Huayi Brothers also leapt from an advertising company to a leading enterprise in China's film and television industry.
However, at that 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 subsequent golden period of development, so the scale of their company was not large.
When the Wang brothers learned that Rich23 Capital was going to invest in their company, they were a little confused at first. However, after asking their friends about this investment company, they immediately became enthusiastic...
Although Rich23 is not well-known outside the investment circle, those who are familiar with China's Internet investment know that this investment company has successively participated in the financing of Penguin, Alibaba and Baidu. In particular, in Alibaba, in their last round of financing, Rich23 Capital invested a full 150 million US dollars and holds a lot of shares in Alibaba and Taobao.
The companies invested by Rich23 Capital are all well-known companies in China's Internet industry. Penguin Technology was listed in HK last year, and Baidu is about to go public in the US.
Most importantly, there are rumors that Rich23 has a close relationship with the Duke of England, Barron Cavendish, who was ranked sixth on the Forbes Global Rich List last year and is well-known in China. After all, the relationship between Rich23 Capital and DS Capital in Alibaba's investment will also make people speculate...
After some contacts and negotiations, Rich23 Capital will finally invest US$2 million (approximately 15 million Chinese yuan) to acquire a 15% stake in Huayi Brothers.
Prior to this, Huayi Brothers had two shareholders, namely the Wang brothers and Taihe Holdings.
This story begins after Huayi Brothers entered the film and television industry...
Since the film industry is a high-investment, high-return industry, a large amount of capital is required in the early stages as leverage investment.
However, due to the constraints of China's domestic policies and economic environment at that time, Huayi Brothers had basically no chance to obtain bank loans or venture capital.
However, relying solely on their own accumulation could no longer satisfy the appetite of the Wang brothers.
So Wang Zhongjun used his familiarity with some entrepreneurs to start introducing capital.
In June 2000, Huayi Brothers Taihe Film and 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 Film and Television Investment Co., Ltd., in which the Wang brothers held 50% of the shares.
In 2001, the Wang brothers repurchased 5% of the shares from Taihe Holdings and had absolute controlling rights with a ratio of 55%. After that, Huayi Brothers Taihe was renamed Huayi Brothers.
It was the 25 million yuan investment from Taihe that enabled Huayi Brothers to quickly complete its initial expansion in the film production field.
Through this investment, Huayi Brothers invested in a large number of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films by the end of 2004, and together with Feng Kuzi, pioneered the Chinese "New Year's Film" model.
A series of "New Year's films" brought Huayi Brothers considerable profits and growing reputation.
Just on November 10 last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and the Ministry of Commerce announced the "Interim Provisions on Film Enterprise Business Qualification Access", allowing foreign companies to enter the fields of 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 allowed foreign companies to engage in the production and distribution of radio and television programs in mainland China, provided that the Chinese shareholding must not be less than 51%.
These two regulations proposed for the first time that social capital could establish film production companies and film technology companies. They also proposed for the first time that foreign capital could establish film production, film technology and radio and television program production companies through joint ventures and cooperation.
The purpose is to absorb and learn from foreign funds, technology and experience by lowering the entry threshold and expanding the scope of cooperation, and vigorously promote the development of China's radio, film and television industry.
It is for this reason that Rich23 Capital was able to complete its investment in Huayi Brothers. This time, Rich23 Capital used part of its funds to purchase shares from Taihe Holdings, and the other part of its funds to invest in the shares.
In the end, Huayi Brothers' shareholding became 50% held by the Wang brothers, 15% held by Rich23 Capital, and 35% held by Taihe Holdings.