Huayi Brothers Media, China’s biggest private film company, has inked deals with two of China’s biggest Internet companies, Alibaba and Tencent, that has seen it raise $ 590 million (RMB3.6 billion) through a private placing of new shares.
The strategic agreement with online giant Alibaba, which currently has a larger market valuation than Walmart, will cover e-commerce, online entertainment and movie development. The agreement with Tencent will also cover movie development as well as online games and TV.
Alibaba and Tencent will each hold more than 5% of Huayi Brothers moving forward. Huayi plans to issue 145 million shares in private placement, in which Tencent will buy 51.55 million shares and Jack Ma’s investment firm Yunfeng will buy 61.76 million shares.
Analysts have been waiting to see what moves Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent, who make up two-thirds of China’s so-called BAT companies along with Baidu, will make in the film and TV fields.
It is significant, and telling, that their first major play is a Chinese one with Huayi Brothers.
Developing…
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