Original@新tropy Author丨Iman Editor丨Fern Ying and Feng Xiaogang "unbind", Huayi Brothers "sell" to Alibaba Pictures! On October 28, Zhejiang Dongyang Meila Media Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes. Huayi Brothers Media Co., Ltd. withdrew from the ranks of shareh

original @新tropy author丨Yiman Editor丨Fern Shadow

and Feng Xiaogang "unbind", Huayi Brothers "sold" to Ali Pictures !

On October 28, Zhejiang Dongyang Meila Media Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes. Huayi Brothers Media Co., Ltd. withdrew from the ranks of shareholders and added Beijing Alibaba Film Culture Co., Ltd. as a shareholder.

Zhejiang Dongyang Meila Media Co., Ltd. was established in September 2015 with a registered capital of 5 million yuan. It is worth noting that the company only operated for two months before being acquired by Huayi Brothers, with Feng Xiaogang holding 99% of the shares and Lu Guoqiang holding the remaining 1%. In November 2015, Huayi Brothers announced that it would acquire 70% of Dongyang Mera's equity held by Feng Xiaogang and Lu Guoqiang for an equity transfer price of RMB 1.05 billion. In addition, the two parties also signed a five-year gambling agreement. Feng Xiaogang promised that Dongyang Meila's performance target for 2016 will be an audited net profit after tax of no less than RMB 100 million, and starting from 2017 As of December 31, 2020, the performance target for each year is to increase by 15% based on the net profit target promised in the previous year, that is, the net profit from 2016 to 2020 will be 100 million yuan, 115 million yuan, and 132 million yuan respectively. billion, 152 million yuan and 174.9 million yuan. If the goal is not achieved, Feng Xiaogang needs to make up the difference in cash.

However, after the acquisition, Dongyang Meila achieved net profits of 55.1139 million yuan, 117 million yuan, 65.015 million yuan, 164 million yuan and 5.6043 million yuan respectively from 2016 to 2020.

Feng Xiaogang has paid Huayi Brothers approximately 236 million yuan in compensation in the past five years.

Selling equity to pay off debt

The shares that Huayi Brothers spent huge sums of money to acquire in the past have to be sold to Alibaba Pictures at a low price. Huayi Brothers said that the sale of Dongyang Meila's equity can offset part of the company's borrowings and relieve the company's financial pressure. Since 2018, Huayi Brothers has ended its long-term profitability. The company's net profits have shown losses for several consecutive years, with cumulative losses reaching nearly 8 billion yuan, and revenue also falling from 3.814 billion yuan to 402 million yuan. .

In fact, this equity transfer dates back to 2019, when Alibaba Pictures provided Huayi Brothers with a loan of 700 million yuan, with a loan period of up to five years. The latter provides mortgage guarantees with its 70% equity stake in Dongyang Meila, as well as its own real estate and state-owned land use rights held by the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Beijing Huayi Brothers Jiali Cultural Development Co., Ltd.

Unfortunately, as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, Huayi Brothers had 271 million yuan in funds on its books, total assets of 4.881 billion yuan, a debt ratio of 75.57%, and total liabilities of 3.689 billion yuan, of which current liabilities were 2.713 billion yuan. Facing the repayment pressure of 700 million yuan, Huayi Brothers is obviously unable to cope with its needs. In November last year, Huayi Brothers transferred 100% of the equity of Jiali Culture held by its wholly-owned subsidiary Beijing Huayi Brothers Entertainment Investment Co., Ltd., as well as all the claims of Huayi Entertainment Investment on Jiali Culture, to Alibaba Pictures Zhonglian Shengshi Culture (Beijing) Co., Ltd. to offset 350 million of the 700 million borrowings.

Dongyang Meila’s 70% equity was used by Huayi Brothers to offset the remaining 350 million yuan owed to Alibaba Pictures.

relies on Damai.com

However, Alibaba Pictures’ own life has not been smooth sailing. Alibaba Pictures released its 2024 fiscal year results, which showed that as of March 31, 2024, Alibaba Pictures had achieved revenue of approximately RMB 5.036 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44%. The net profit attributable to Alibaba Pictures during the reporting period was 285 million yuan. Compared with the net loss of 291 million yuan in the same period last year, it achieved a turnaround.

During the reporting period, Alibaba Pictures participated in the production and distribution of nearly 60 films. However, the participation methods of these projects were mainly co-production, joint production or leading promotion, and did not involve independent self-made projects. This strategy There is undoubtedly great risk and instability. Positioning itself as a non-content-producing company may become a potential weakness for Alibaba Pictures. It is worth mentioning that on November 30, 2023, Alibaba Pictures successfully completed its major acquisition of Damai.This acquisition further expanded Alibaba Pictures' layout, consolidated its scale advantage in the offline entertainment field, and raised the competitive barriers of the entire group.

Damai.com has become one of the important pillars of Alibaba Pictures’ revenue growth. Financial report data shows that as of March 31, 2024, Damai’s annual revenue is 1.481 billion yuan, with an average monthly income of more than 100 million yuan; as of March 31, 2023, Damai’s annual revenue is 294 million yuan, according to Based on this data, its annual revenue growth exceeds an astonishing 500%. Despite its gratifying performance, Damai.com has been caught in the whirlpool of public opinion many times. It was criticized by consumers for the issues of "pillar tickets", "railing tickets" and "step tickets", and was named by the China Consumers Association, Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission and others because of its inconsistent refund policy.

html The improvement of the market environment in 19 cities has promoted the significant improvement of Alibaba Pictures' performance, sweeping away the gloom of the past. Although now it has joined hands with Dongyang Mira, the number of its film works has gradually decreased, and its performance has not been as good as expected. How to move forward steadily on the road to future development has become a key challenge facing Alibaba Pictures.