Chapter 516 Regaining Confucianism
Although the plan was good, Zhao Jinmai's plan was not finally realized.
It was the first time for her daughter to go abroad to record a program, and Zhao's mother rushed to Jingbei after the exam, intending to go with her. The little girl thought of various excuses but could not get rid of her mother's supervision, so she could only board the plane to Tokyo in a depressed mood.
Looking at the WeChat sent by Mai Mai, which was full of complaints from a little girl in love, Meng Bai couldn't help but laugh. There is no doubt that he called Zhao's mother over.
Calculating the time, it will be almost August when Zhao Jinmai returns from Tokyo, and school will start after a few days of delay. And after school, it will be her birthday in less than a month.
From last year's birthday to this year's birthday, it has been exactly one year. According to the original agreement, his identity as a "boyfriend" has ended.
Just after sending a greeting to the girl, Meng Bai heard a teasing female voice beside him: "Mr. Meng, which girlfriend are you chatting with again?"
"I find that Sister Xi, you are more and more concerned about my love life."
Meng Bai turned off the screen and looked at Chen Zhixi who was walking over: "What's the matter? Are you planning to change your career and become a matchmaker because the industry is in recession?"
"Haha, if I were a matchmaker, I would definitely hang your photo in the first row at the main entrance with the label 'scumbag', so that those girls can broaden their horizons and avoid being cheated."
After a few jokes, Chen Zhixi sat down next to Meng Bai and said with emotion: "The screening rate of "Mistakenly Killing" increased to 60% yesterday. If it were the summer season in previous years, it would definitely be the annual champion."
"It's not bad now. Yesterday's single-day box office was 200 million, and Maoyan predicts that the total box office has reached 2.6 billion."
In the domestic film market, the summer season and the Spring Festival season are the two most important seasons of the year. Moreover, compared with the Spring Festival period, which is mainly family-friendly, the summer period lasts longer and contains more film themes. It has always been a battlefield for various blockbusters.
However, this year's summer period is a little different. Affected by the dual impact of the film and television winter and influenza, the number of film projects that have been launched in the past year has been greatly reduced, and the new projects have not been completed, just in time for a period of transition.
In previous years, from the beginning of July to the end of August, there were more than a dozen big-budget movies, and the rest of the small movies were countless.
However, this year, none of these are available. Among the movies released in July, only three can be considered blockbusters, such as "Manslaughter", "1921" and "Chinese Doctor".
The latter two, one is a main theme of history, telling the founding of the party in 1921; the other is also the main theme, telling last year's influenza relief.
One of these two is a classic theme, and the other is a hot spot of the times. If the production is qualified, the box office will definitely not be low, but the ceiling is limited.
What is really valued by the theaters is "The Manslaughter" created by the "Meng Bai + Chen Sicheng" combination, which has been verified many times.
For film producers, if the offline box office is not good, they can still sell online copyrights to make up for it. But theaters and cinemas only have offline, and they are actually the ones who are most eager to have a box office hit.
The pre-sale box office of "The Manslaughter" is more than 60 million, ranking first among the movies of the same period. Seeing this, the theaters directly gave 32% of the first-day screenings.
Facts have proved that the trust of the theaters has not been betrayed. After "The Manslaughter" was launched, the box office on the first day was 230 million, accounting for 45%, and the single-day box office has remained above 200 million since then.
As soon as this data came out, people in the circle understood two points: First, "The Manslaughter" is indeed very strong and can fully support the summer blockbuster; second, this year's film market is really sluggish, and the box office of less than 300 million accounts for nearly half of the total single-day box office.
There is no way, the flu situation in various regions has been repeated, and theaters have to close at any time. Even theaters in low-risk areas must maintain the "seating at intervals" rule, and the number of people in a single show is limited.
As the saying goes, "When there is no tiger in the mountain, the monkey is king." The movie "The Accidental Detective" was originally only worth more than a billion yuan, but at this time, the total score is estimated to be more than doubled.
As the main producer of the film, Heng Teng is naturally the happiest.
The company's movie box office is a big hit. At the same time, the "Sisters Who Make Waves 2" and the recent "The Beginning" broadcast on its video platform some time ago have also performed very well, and the stock price has begun a series of small increases.
For investors and the outside world, Heng Teng Network is naturally a flowery and prosperous company. However, what no one knows is that the company is facing a major reshuffle of forces.
Meng Bai and Chen Zhixi sat at the conference table and chatted casually. With them were Ke Liming, Tencent representatives, and a group of members of the board of directors.
After waiting for a long time, the door of the conference room was suddenly pushed open, and Zhou Cheng, the president of Hengten, walked in. Following behind him were executives from Evergrande.
Zhou Cheng was obviously not in a good mood. After forcing a smile at Meng Bai and others present, he spoke directly: "I guess you have heard about what I want to say in today's meeting before, so I will get straight to the point. As the largest shareholder of Hengten Network, Evergrande currently holds 34.5% of the company's shares. Due to the needs of the group's strategic adjustment, it is preparing to sell 19.5% of the shares."
"According to the previous contract requirements, the remaining shareholders of the company have the right of first refusal. At the same time, for the continuity of the company's operations, we don't want to introduce new investors. So the main reason for calling everyone here is to discuss with each other to see if you have any plans to acquire shares, and at what price and how much you are prepared to acquire..."
Listening to Zhou Cheng's words, everyone in the room suddenly had an idea in their minds.
Everyone heard about this news some time ago, and no one regarded it as groundless.
Evergrande has been active in the past six months since the "help letter" at the beginning of the year. It seems to be still operating normally, but various signs of collapse are beginning to emerge.
At the same time, Evergrande is selling assets through various means to collect funds.
Although Zhou Cheng just said that it was a "strategic adjustment need", everyone understands that this is obviously Evergrande can no longer hold on and has to sell the few high-quality assets in hand to pay back the debt.
It has to be said that judging from the current market value of Hengten, Evergrande's shares are still quite valuable. According to the stock price in the secondary market, it is at least 10 billion Hong Kong dollars.
However, such a large transaction between shareholders cannot be calculated directly according to the real-time stock price. If you really calculate it, it would be very high to sell half in the end. It doesn't matter
if it's 5 billion or 10 billion. If the rumored "trillion debt" of Evergrande is true, then even if it is sold at ten times the price, it is just a drop in the bucket.
But as Meng Bai has always said to Chen Zhixi, it doesn't matter whether Evergrande is dead or alive. What they care about is the shares sold by the other party.
In fact, there are two main buyers, one is the original Ruyi Film and Television, and the other is Tencent.
19.5% of the shares is not a small number for a listed company. No matter which side takes it, it will affect the company's subsequent rights distribution.
If Meng Bai and his team can take it all, then Ruyi's shareholding will exceed 50%, and it will directly become a holding company. If Tencent takes it, then the shares in hand will exceed Ruyi and become the new first shareholder.
Of course, it is not necessary for a single company to take all the shares, and so much money cannot be taken out casually.
This kind of large-scale transaction involving billions of dollars is definitely not something that can be decided in a day or two. Therefore, for the next period of time, Hengten's external businesses will continue to operate normally, but fierce negotiations have begun internally.
From the beginning of July to August, the parties finally reached a preliminary agreement.
Evergrande will sell this part of the shares at a price of 5.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, of which the original Ruyi party will acquire 9.5% and Tencent will acquire 10%. Among Ruyi's 9.5%, Huguang accounts for 6%, and Ke Liming and his team account for 3.5%.
In this way, the total shares in the hands of Huguang reached 21%, followed by the Ke Liming brothers with 20.5%, followed by Tencent with 19% and Evergrande with 15%.
In mid-August, just as the summer season was coming to an end, Hengten Network officially issued an announcement to the public, announcing the relevant matters of the equity transfer.
At the same time, Hengten's management also ushered in a wave of changes. All the former Evergrande executives have resigned, Meng Bai will serve as the new chairman, and Chen Zhixi will take over as president.
And they have reported to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, preparing to change the company name from the current "Hengten Network" to the new "China Ruyi".
In this way, since the merger and acquisition in 2019, Meng Bai and Chen Zhixi have spent more than two years to complete the "emptying the cage and replacing the bird" and regain control of the Ruyi brand.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
