Chapter 284: All the Money Gone
Meng Bai carefully read the film list on the screen.
There were more than a dozen projects, some of which were controlled by Arclight and some were co-produced, and each of them had an investment of at least tens of millions.
Just adding these together, it was already close to 200 million.
That's why he kept saying that he spent money quickly.
"Okay, no problem, send out the film list before the Spring Festival." Meng Bai instructed.
He also asked the head of the administrative department about the preparations for the Arclight annual meeting next week. Seeing that all the things that needed to be discussed were over, the first planning meeting of the new year was finally over.
"Sister Jing, wait a moment in my office."
"Oh, okay."
Chen Jing was a little curious, but still responded. After going back to tidy up, she came to Meng Bai's office.
"Ding ding."
"Come in."
Chen Jing pushed the door open and saw Meng Bai behind the desk first, and then a woman sitting opposite him.
"Mr. Meng, you're looking for me?"
"Come on, Sister Jing, let me introduce you to someone."
Meng Bai gestured to the woman opposite him: "This is Gu Fei, who used to work in the investment banking department of JP Morgan and is now the new head of Qiming Venture Partners."
As Pinduoduo's rounds of financing gradually expanded, the equity and capital matters involved also gradually became more and more numerous.
In addition, Meng Bai also had some new investment targets to add, and it was obviously not enough to rely on Chen Jing's "part-time" management.
So he used Huang Zheng's connections to find a professional to take charge.
This Gu Fei used to work on Wall Street and just returned to China before the New Year, so he just happened to introduce her to him.
Similar to Chen Jing, Gu Fei was also in her thirties, and they were both the kind of women who looked like standard elites at first glance.
"Mr. Chen, nice to meet you for the first time. Hello."
"You're welcome, Mr. Gu, welcome to Arclight." The
two women shook hands and smiled at each other.
"Very good, then during this period, please connect the relevant data with Gu Fei." Meng Bai said: "We will have several new projects soon."
He naturally did not ask the two people to come here just to introduce each other, but for business.
Seeing Meng Bai talking about work, Chen and Gu both looked serious. They sat down at the table and listened carefully.
Qiming Venture Partners has three main tasks this year.
One is the C round of financing that Pinduoduo will start in February after the New Year.
The lead investor in this round of financing is Sequoia Capital, and the total financing amount is 330 million US dollars.
"We have limited funds, so it is inevitable that the shares will be diluted." Meng Bai looked at Gu Fei, "My requirement is to try to ensure that the diluted shares can be above 5%, so that we can cope with the D round of financing before the listing later."
"Okay, I understand what you mean." Gu Fei nodded in response.
Meng Bai then started to talk about the second item.
"Qiyi TV will also have a C round of financing of 1.5 billion US dollars after the New Year. I have talked to their general manager Gong, and at that time, we will occupy a certain share in the form of strategic cooperation, content support and funds."
Compared with Pinduoduo, the investment in Qiyi TV is much simpler.
Because his purpose is mainly to deepen the cooperative relationship between Arclight and the platform, and it is only in the C round, so the subsequent increase will not be very large.
So you don't have to think as much as Pinduoduo, just make sure it goes on as normal.
After the financing, Arclight will not hold a lot of shares, probably only a few tenths.
In fact, this is not a small amount. You know, Gong Yu, the "head" of Qiyi TV, only has 1.8% of the shares.
The real major shareholders are mainly large Internet capitals such as Baidu and Xiaomi. The top three shareholders alone account for more than 80%.
In addition to Qiyi TV, there is another capital financing from Taiyang Chuanhe.
As an emerging brokerage company, although it was established for a short time, it has also occupied a place in the industry by relying on Yang Ming's resources over the years and the support of the other two major shareholders Huang Xiaoming and Huguang.
Especially with the popularity of Papi Jiang, a net celebrity under its umbrella and a classmate of Yang Ming, on the Internet last year, it has developed a new "net celebrity" track that is different from traditional brokerage companies, and has attracted much attention from the capital market.
So starting from the end of last year, after a series of negotiations, it was finally determined that Everbright Financial Holdings would lead the investment and launch a round A financing of 120 million yuan.
This fund will account for about 10% of the shares. In other words, Taiyang Chuanhe's current market valuation is about 1 billion.
Qiming Venture Partners will also participate in this round of financing. Meng Bai's request is also very simple, as long as he can ensure that his side can still maintain 20% of the shares unchanged.
Huguang was the third largest shareholder of Taiyang Chuanhe before. After this round of dilution, the ranking should remain unchanged, but the gap with the second shareholder Huang Xiaoming is almost negligible.
Three rounds of financing, this is the main task of Qiming Venture Partners this year.
But then again, in fact, the most important one is Pinduoduo, and the latter two can only be regarded as foils.
But no matter how important it is, after investing in three projects, Meng Bai's money has basically bottomed out again.
——As
the Spring Festival is getting closer, each company has started its own year-end celebrations.
Arclight Film and Television has not yet started, but Meng Bai, as one of the shareholder representatives, has participated in the annual meeting of Taiyang Chuanhe.
The biggest feature of the annual meeting of an agency is that all its artists and celebrities will be present.
After more than a year of development, although Taiyang Chuanhe still has only Yang Tianbao and Zhou Dongyu as big names, there are still many more second- and third-tier actors.
"Meng Bai, let me introduce you."
Yang Ming walked in front of Meng Bai, followed by a tall woman with a royal temperament.
Seeing Meng Bai looking at her, the woman smiled gently and said enthusiastically with a Wanwan accent: "Hello, Mr. Meng, I am Zhang Junning."
"Hello, Miss Zhang."
Meng Bai nodded, and then said apologetically: "I'm sorry, I don't know much about the film and television industry in Taiwan."
"Oh, that's it." Zhang Junning kept smiling and said: "It doesn't matter, I'm mainly in the mainland now."
"Developing in the mainland..."
Meng Bai paused, and then smiled and said: "I wonder what Miss Zhang thinks of the '1992 Consensus'?"
Zhang Junning's smile froze, mainly because she didn't expect Meng Bai to ask so directly.
But she reacted quickly and continued with a normal look: "Of course I support it. We are all Chinese children and we are one family."
As a graduate student of Taiwan Central University, Zhang Junning's academic level is already considered a "top student" in the entertainment industry. At least
, there is no need to explain to her what the "1992 Consensus" is.
No matter whether it is verbal support or not, it is okay to say it.
Meng Bai also returned to his normal smile: "Welcome Miss Zhang to join Taiyang Chuanhe,
and we will have the opportunity to cooperate more in the future." Zhang Junning's eyes lit up, and she immediately said: "Then if there is a suitable role for President Meng in the future, I hope you can consider me more."
After that, she joked: "I don't have a big name, so I'm still very cheap."
"Haha, as a producer, I still like this advantage of Miss Zhang."
After a few simple chats, the two said goodbye to each other and left.
After walking around the scene and exchanging a few words with several company executives, Meng Bai finally got a little free time.
Although it was an annual meeting, not all contracted artists were present.
For example, Li Yitong, Song Zhi, Zhang Ruoyun, and Bai Lu from Arc Light were all out for publicity or filming, and did not come.
This is also the reason why Meng Bai was so relaxed today.
Just as he was thinking about whether to go to Bai Yu to chat, a familiar female voice suddenly sounded beside him.
"Master... Hello, President Meng."
Meng Bai turned around, but saw Zhu Xudan, who had not seen him for a long time, standing aside and looking at him with some nervousness.
(End of this chapter)
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