Huayu Shen Gongbao

Chapter 28 Analysis of the Needs of All Parties

After all the dishes were served and the waiter left, Li Xue said softly, "Over at Chengtian, 'Boss Lady' Chen Hao has already left, Jiang Yiyan can't hold up the business at all, and Liu Jialing is too old to be of much value."

Therefore, they have been trying to recruit Fan Bingbing.

To show his sincerity, Wu Kebo has already invested in the art film "Apple" starring Fan Bingbing.

However, Fan Bingbing was not in a hurry to make a decision. She still wanted to waver between Hua Yi and Cheng Tian in order to gain more benefits.

There are rumors circulating that she's going to set up her own studio, and it seems to be true.

Fan Bingbing's contract with Huayi Brothers expired at the end of January this year, and it was from then on that rumors of a relationship between Fan Bingbing and Wu Kebo began to circulate.

If Chen Hao could still accept or deal with Jiang Yiyan's affair with Wu Kebo, then Fan Bingbing's involvement made Chen Hao see through Wu Kebo, and she decisively chose to leave.

This led Cheng Tian to pay even more attention to Fan Bingbing.

But Fan Bingbing was also smart; she didn't rush to make a decision and let various news rumors ferment.

Following the events of the previous life, it wasn't until the end of May, when Li Bingbing decided to renew her contract with Huayi and held a grand signing ceremony, that Fan Bingbing completely sided with Chengtian, accepted Chengtian's investment, and established her own studio in June.

Li Xue continued, "There's also important news from Jackie Chan's side. There's been internal conflict at his agency in Hong Kong, and Wu Yanzu has confirmed that he will not be renewing his contract."

Shen Gongbao took a bite of the grilled skewer, then a sip of his iced cola, and asked, "What conflict?"

Li Xue replied: "The conflict between Chen Ziqiang and Su Lun. Chen Ziqiang is a veteran agent and a founding partner of Jackie Chan's company. He made Chen Guanxi and Wu Yanzu famous."

Su Lun is the vice president of the agency and advocates for diversified development and the cultivation of more female artists.

The two were locked in a fierce battle at the company, to the point that rumors circulated that the company was on the verge of disbanding.

Shen Gongbao then asked, "This infighting is so fierce; it can't just be a superficial conflict between the two senior executives, can it?"

Li Xue nodded and said, "That's right, Su Lun is Lin Fengjiao's spokesperson, and Chen Ziqiang is Jackie Chan's man."

The essence of this conflict is that Lin Fengjiao is unwilling to be left out and wants to interfere in Jackie Chan's career to gain a certain degree of influence.

Jackie Chan was definitely unwilling, but he and Lin Fengjiao still had a marital relationship, and Lin Fengjiao still had Fang Zuming as her trump card, so Jackie Chan couldn't afford to break off relations.

"With Jackie Chan and Lin Fengjiao backing them up, the endless infighting between the two sides has led to the current situation."

Upon hearing Li Xue's words, Shen Gongbao was overjoyed and quickly identified Jackie Chan as an investor.

Don't be fooled by Jackie Chan's constant claims that he wants to keep his money in his own hands and would never let a woman manage it.

But after so many years of marriage, and with Lin Fengjiao giving birth to Jackie Chan's only son, it's impossible for Jackie Chan to be completely unaffected.

There were even rumors in the past that Jackie Chan was hospitalized and Lin Fengjiao wanted to divorce him and get 20 billion yuan in compensation.

At this point, Lin Fengjiao wanted to interfere in Jackie Chan's management business, so Jackie Chan would definitely want to find a dignified way to refuse.

Investing in studios and brokerage businesses in mainland China is a good approach.

For wealthy people, different funds have different needs; some funds are for increasing and preserving their value, while others are for hedging against risks.

Jackie Chan's primary need at this time was to gracefully avoid Lin Fengjiao's entanglement, which was also a form of risk avoidance.

Next year, Jackie Chan will establish Bona Film Group's entertainment agency in mainland China together with Bona Film Group, and invest in Fan Bingbing's studio, for this very purpose.

This gave Shen Gongbao room to maneuver.

Seeing that Shen Gongbao didn't speak, Li Xue paused for a moment and continued, "Huayi has already signed a letter of intent with the securities firm and is preparing to launch its overseas listing plan."

This morning, Mr. Wang chatted with me and told me about these things.

He wants me to sign you, then hire me as the vice president of Huayi Brothers. My sister's contract terms can be discussed later.

Many people don't know that Huayi originally planned to list in the United States.

To this end, Huayi also introduced the foreign company TOM Group and found Ma Yun, Jiang Nanchun and others to invest.

That's why Huayi is so eager to use internal shares to bind major celebrities and create momentum for its listing—after all, the shares given away are practically half-sold and half-gifted, and Huayi wouldn't do this if it weren't in a hurry.

However, Huayi was unlucky and encountered the subprime mortgage crisis, which caused its overseas listing to fail. The company then applied for listing on the domestic SME board, but was rejected again, so it turned to the ChiNext board.

The listing process was full of twists and turns.

Shen Gongbao asked, "What kind of contract terms is Huayi willing to offer your sister?"

Li Xue answered truthfully: "The internal stock subscription qualification at an extremely low price, totaling about 300,000 shares, and a 5-year contract with a total price of 40 million, but the cash payment is very small and will be given in batches."

Upon hearing this, Shen Gongbao nodded.

Li Xue's answer indicates that Huayi is currently short of cash, or at least its cash flow is very tight.

In fact, Huayi had negative operating net cash flow for three consecutive years from 2006 to 2008.

Although the company's overall revenue is decent, the film and television production model involves "paying upfront to make the film, then receiving dividends and repayments," resulting in very long payment terms.

Putting aside other things, Huayi's investment in Kung Fu King alone is around 1.6 million yuan.

The repayment period for this investment is at least one and a half years, and could be delayed for two or three years, which shows how much pressure there is on cash flow.

Therefore, Huayi is eager to go public to solve its funding problems, and its most important task now is to create momentum, which is its primary need.

Shen Gongbao wrote it down.

Li Xue added, "Other companies don't have anything important going on for the time being. Li Lianjie's focus is on a foundation, so he's not very concerned about things in the entertainment industry anymore."

As for Liu Yifei, her attitude is ambiguous.

But I don't think she will sign with Huayi Brothers, otherwise she wouldn't have kept dragging it out.

In my opinion, Liu Yifei's popularity in China has reached a certain level, and her team probably wants her to go international.

So after she came of age, she immediately signed with Sony Music, went to Japan for training to produce an album, and retained her American citizenship.

This is clearly an attempt to leave.

It must be said that Li Xue's analysis was spot on; Liu Yifei's team did indeed want her to pursue an international career path at this time.

On the one hand, the United States was the world's strongest country at that time, with a very strong beacon effect, and there were many people in the country who admired the United States.

After all, people are products of their time, and it's inevitable to have a biased view of the United States in this era.

On the other hand, it's also due to practical benefits; the salaries of top Hollywood actors are currently much higher than those in China.

Everyone goes to Hollywood to make big money.

If domestic actors' salaries increase in the future, their desire to go to Hollywood will not be as strong.

Without a doubt, Liu Yifei lacks the ability to pursue an international career.

But she was still young at the time, which didn't stop her team from thinking that way, so Liu Yifei eventually signed with a Hollywood agency.

Shen Gongbao noted down this situation and then summarized: "In other words, Jackie Chan has a need to transfer some of his funds and brokerage business to the mainland to avoid Lin Fengjiao;

Huayi needs to sign several big stars to generate buzz for its IPO, despite insufficient cash flow.

Fan Bingbing wants to establish her own studio and wants to secure the best possible conditions;

Chengtian needs to find a female celebrity with enough influence to represent the company; Liu Yifei wants to go international.

Li Xue added, "Liu Yifei doesn't necessarily have to go international, but signing with Huayi Brothers is quite difficult."

She's a bit easily frightened now, and very sensitive to any negative rumors.

After signing with Huayi Brothers, rumors about her and President Wang will definitely circulate online.

To put it bluntly, she doesn't understand the survival rules for female celebrities in the entertainment industry—appropriate negative news and scandals are the fertile ground for female celebrities to maintain popularity and exposure.

The entertainment industry doesn't allow for any kind of sanctity; if you want to make money, you have to learn to bow your head.

Shen Gongbao ignored Li Xue's sarcasm. He pondered for a long time, then looked up and said, "OK, I have a complete plan."

Within half a month, our studio will be roughly complete.

If all goes well, we will be able to please everyone, satisfy all parties, and achieve the goal of getting something for nothing.

Upon hearing Shen Gongbao's words, Li Xue subconsciously recalled that a few days ago, Shen Gongbao had also been full of confidence, saying that he could secure the role of the God of War of Jade Frontier.

He did it easily last time, so Li Xue was really looking forward to seeing how Shen Gongbao would perform this time.