The total share capital of New Asia Advertising is 250 million shares. After the opening, the stock price rose slightly all the way and finally settled at 52 yuan per share. The company's total market value is 13 billion Hong Kong dollars.
According to underwriter CICC, the issue price of New Asia Advertising is higher than the previously determined pricing range of HK$32 to HK$37 per share, which fully demonstrates that overseas investors are eager to participate in the fast-growing mainland China advertising market.
New Asia Advertising's cornerstone investors include IDG Capital, Penguin Group, Cheung Kong Holdings, NetEase, Blue Ocean Capital and SoftBank.
The advertising revenue sources of Xinya Advertising are mainly divided into four parts: first, the advertising business of the campus network; second, the long-term advertising cooperation business with CCTV Sports Channel; third, the LCD screen advertising network placed in elevators of office buildings and residential communities.
Xinya Advertising is the number one advertising company in mainland China, with its revenue and net profit far exceeding the second and third place Focus Media and Juzhong Media.
In the second quarter of 2005, New Asia Advertising's net profit was RMB 44.6 million and its advertising revenue was RMB 181 million.
In comparison, Focus Media, which went public on the U.S. stock market in August this year, had a net profit of US$3.4 million and revenue of US$11 million in the second quarter.
According to Zenith Optimedia's survey data, China is the fastest growing advertising market among the world's major economies. The total output value of China's advertising market was US$8.7 billion in 2003 and US$10.118 billion in 2004.
As the two giants in the advertising industry, Focus Media and New Asia Advertising, have completed their listing plans respectively, Juzhong Media, ranked third in the industry, may abandon its overseas IPO plan and instead prepare to sell the company to New Asia Advertising or Focus Media.
Jiang Nanchun, the founder of Focus Media, publicly criticized New Asia Advertising for unfair competition. All residential communities developed by Sheng'an Real Estate in the southern region refused to allow Focus Media to enter, and all building advertising business was handed over to its affiliated company New Asia Advertising.
In response to this, Zheng Yiping, deputy general manager of Xinya Advertising, said that Xinya Advertising did not engage in unfair competition. Xinya Advertising and Sheng'an Real Estate have been business partners for many years and the cooperation between the two parties has been quite pleasant.
On the contrary, when Focus Media was negotiating with Hang Lung, Wanda, Powerlong and other commercial advertising companies, it asked the plaza operators to choose one of the two. If Focus Media took over the outdoor LCD screen advertising business of the commercial plaza, New Asia Advertising would not be allowed to enter the market again.
The spat between New Asia Advertising and Focus Media also alarmed SoftBank's Masayoshi Son and Alibaba's Mr. Ma. SoftBank is not only the main shareholder of New Asia Advertising, but also the main shareholder of Focus Media.
Mr. Ma and Jiang Nanchun have a good relationship, and both of them are representatives of Zhejiang businessmen. He contacted Song Yi and asked him if he could arrange a dinner party for everyone to sit together and chat. There was no need to make things so awkward.
Song Yi agreed to Teacher Ma's proposal and took Liao Yu and Zheng Yiping to attend the dinner party hosted by Teacher Ma's group in Hangzhou.
As a result, less than two days after the dinner, New Asia Advertising announced that it would acquire Focus Media for $305 million, further consolidating its dominance in the fields of building TV, community TV, outdoor large screens, etc. Jiang Nanchun was furious when he learned about this, and scolded Song Yi for being unethical, reconciling with Focus Media on the surface, but stabbing him in the back.
Mr. Ma, who was organizing the meeting, was a little embarrassed. He was in a dilemma. Song Yi said to Mr. Ma, "Mr. Ma, you can't blame me for this. We had a good discussion with Xinya Advertising and Juzhong Media, but Focus Media insisted on interfering."
"If Jiang Nanchun can do it on the first day, I can do it on the fifteenth. Focus Media lags behind New Asia Advertising in terms of market size, net profit and revenue, but it insists on listing on the US stock market with the title of China's No. 1 advertising stock."
"I had a chat with Yu Feng of Juzhong Media. After selling Juzhong Media, he gave up running a business and prepared to switch to being a professional investor. He and I have jointly established a Songfeng Fund, which specializes in investing in Internet start-ups in Asia and incubating future unicorn companies. Are you interested in investing in it?" Song Yi said.
Teacher Ma was a little surprised. "This time, New Asia Advertising acquired Juzhong Media. Does Yu Feng not stay with New Asia Advertising?"
This time, New Asia Advertising acquired Juzhong Media through a combination of stock and cash. After the transaction is completed, Yu Feng personally holds a total of 4.2% of New Asia Advertising's shares.
"No, not only Lao Yu, I will also withdraw from the board of directors of New Asia Advertising this time and hand over the company completely to Liao Yu and Zheng Yiping. The two of them cooperate very well, and it's time to give way to young people." Song Yi said.
Teacher Ma was speechless. He and Song Yi were both born in the Year of the Dragon, but he was a generation older than Song Yi. Song Yi was now talking about giving way to the young, but he was obviously younger than Liao Yu and Zheng Yiping.
"Let's put the matter of Songfeng Fund aside for now. Souhan.com is now the largest e-commerce website in South Korea, and SA is also a shareholder of Alibaba. Do you think Taobao and Souhan.com can start some cooperation?" Teacher Ma asked Song Yi.
Song Yi immediately became alert, but did not refuse immediately, "What kind of cooperation are you referring to?"
"Korean dramas have been quite popular in the mainland in recent years, and the number of mainland tourists traveling to South Korea has increased significantly in recent years. Many mainland tourists will register accounts on Souhan.com and then book air tickets, hotels and tickets for tourist attractions."
"In addition to supporting UnionPay or VISA bank cards, SouHan.com does not accept other payment methods. In fact, SouHan.com can open Alipay, which will not only facilitate mainland tourists, but also increase SouHan.com's diversified revenue. It will be a win-win situation for SouHan.com and Alibaba. What do you think?" said Mr. Ma.
Song Yi smiled. What Mr. Ma said was not entirely true. Taobao's transaction volume in 2004 was 2.3 billion RMB, and in the first quarter of 2005 it exceeded 1 billion RMB, and the number of registered members was less than 6 million.
Taobao's GMV is not as high as Sohan.com, which was founded in the same year. This means that there are only about 4 to 5 million users who use Alipay to complete transactions. When Chinese tourists travel to South Korea, the proportion of those willing to use Alipay to complete transactions is actually very low, which does not help Sohan.com's business much.
Song Yi thought about it and said, "This shouldn't be a problem. I'll discuss it with Liu Yongjun after I return to Seoul."
"In fact, we also hope that mainland consumers can more conveniently buy Korean products with good quality and good prices."
"In February this year, Alipay upgraded and launched a 'full compensation' system, proactively paying full compensation to protect the interests of online shoppers, setting a precedent for mainland e-commerce."
"In fact, in addition to adding Alipay as a payment option on SouHan.com, I think there is more room for cooperation between SouHan.com and Taobao," said Song Yi.
Mr. Ma knew that the next words were the key point that Song Yi wanted to emphasize. If he did not agree to Song Yi's conditions, Alipay would not be able to enter the Korean market.
He pretended to be interested and asked, "What do you mean by more room for cooperation?"
"In fact, I think Taobao can set up a Korean Pavilion on the homepage. Sohan.com will put some of Sohan's preferred high-quality products on Taobao's Korean Pavilion for sale, so that mainland consumers can directly buy Korean products from Sohan.com."
"In addition to the Korean Pavilion, SouHan and Taobao can also carry out more cooperation in logistics. Mainland consumers who buy products from SouHan, or Korean consumers who buy products from Taobao, can use each other's logistics systems to open up the last mile of overseas shopping." Song Yi expressed his idea.
Mr. Ma found it a bit strange that Sohan.com had a solid foundation in Korea and had entered the Japanese market, so why didn't it enter the mainland market? Instead, it chose to cooperate with Taobao and open a Korean pavilion to sell Sohan.com's products.
SouHan.com is available in four languages: Korean, Japanese, Chinese and English. Inschool Japanese users can log in to SouHan.com directly, and the accounts between the two websites have been connected.
Although Sohan.com cannot reach every prefecture in Japan, users in major cities in Japan can realize one-click shopping at home.
For the current Taobao, it needs to enrich the variety of goods to attract more new users to shop on Taobao, so the benefits outweigh the disadvantages of connecting to Souhan.com's goods.
Mr. Ma is currently worried that SouHan will use Taobao to cultivate SouHan's mainland consumer users. When the time is right, SouHan will leave Taobao and establish SouHan China to specifically serve this group of mid- to high-end users who prefer Korean products.
"No problem. Our aim at Taobao is to make it easy to do business anywhere. We also want to allow mainland users to buy Korean products at reasonable prices and of good quality. Taobao launched the Hong Kong Street in January this year. Hong Kong sellers can directly conduct online transactions with millions of mainland e-commerce consumers through Taobao. Mainland netizens can directly buy first-hand goods in Hong Kong online stores."
Song Yi said: "In fact, there are some differences between the two. Hong Kong Street connects with individual sellers in Hong Kong, while the Korean Pavilion connects with Souhan.com."
"We at Sohan.com will provide after-sales guarantee for all products in the Korea Pavilion. If there are any quality problems with the products, we at Sohan.com will be fully responsible and handle the situation."
"For example, if Taobao is a large shopping mall on the Internet, then the Korean Pavilion is a supermarket in the mall that specializes in Korean products. Therefore, the after-sales service of the products will definitely be the responsibility of the supermarket, rather than finding the channel supplier of the products," said Song Yi.
Now Song Yi and Mr. Ma are both on guard against each other. It is impossible for Taobao to share the personal buyer information of the products in the Korean Pavilion with Souhan.com, which is the core data of Taobao.
It is also impossible for Souhan.com to inform Taobao.com of the information of Korean small and medium-sized enterprise sellers that sell Korean products, which is also the core data of Souhan.com.
On November 20, Song Yi announced his resignation as chairman of the board of directors of New Asia Advertising, and was succeeded by Liao Yu, general manager of New Asia Advertising. Zheng Yiping, deputy general manager of New Asia Advertising, replaced Liao Yu as general manager of New Asia Advertising.
Yu Feng, the founder of Juzhong Media, also announced his resignation as co-chairman of the board of directors of New Asia Advertising. He said he would focus on investment and charity in the future.
Yu Feng officially established Song Yunfeng Fund in Hong Kong Island. Song Yunfeng Fund has three co-founders, namely initiator Yu Feng, SA Group Chairman Song Yi and Alibaba founder Mr. Ma.
The capital market was obviously optimistic about the merger of New Asia Advertising and Focus Media. The share price of New Asia Advertising rose all the way and soon exceeded HK$120 per share. The total market value of New Asia Advertising exceeded HK$30 billion, while the total market value of Focus Media in the US stock market barely exceeded US$1 billion.
When New Asia Advertising was first established, Song Yi held a 49% stake in New Asia Advertising and New Korea Media held a 51% stake in Xi Nayang Advertising. Later, New Asia Advertising completed two rounds of financing before its listing, and the executive team headed by Liao Yu and Zheng Yiping also received stock price incentives.
After the listing, Song Yi's personal shareholding ratio was reduced to 25%, but he is still the largest shareholder of New Asia Advertising. SA Planning (New Korea Media) holds 20%, Liao Yu holds 8%, Yu Feng holds 4.5%, and Zheng Yiping holds 1.5%. If calculated based on the current market value of New Asia Advertising, Song Yi's shares in New Asia Advertising are worth HK$7.5 billion, or about US$720 million.
According to statistics from South Korean media, in early November 2005, Samsung Group Chairman Chen Jianxi's personal assets were US$4.3 billion, ranking 16th on the Asian rich list and 85th on the world rich list.
When the market value of New Asia Advertising exceeded HK$30 billion, Song Yi's personal assets, including the SA Group shares held plus the shares of New Asia Advertising, amounted to US$4.5 billion, officially surpassing Chen Jianxi to become the richest man in South Korea!
On November 24, South Korea's three major newspapers, Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, and JoongAng Ilbo, all reported in important sections of their newspapers that Song Yi had surpassed Chen Jianxi to become the new richest man in South Korea.
KBS, MBC and SBS, the three major TV stations, also reported the news that Song Yi had become the richest man in South Korea in their financial news on the same day. However, it is interesting that SA Group's TV station ABS did not make any corresponding news reports, and ABS was also jokingly called the number one hater of their own chairman by Korean netizens.
In addition to South Korean news media, several major mainland portals such as Sina, NetEase and Sohu also reported on Song Yi's ascension to the throne of South Korea's richest man, "29-year-old Chinese billionaire surpasses Samsung's Chen Jianxi to become the youngest richest man in South Korean history."
NetEase also made a special report to introduce the business development of SA Group. SA Group currently has four listed companies: SA Group, New Asia Advertising, SA Bank, and SM Entertainment.
In addition to these four companies, SA Group has many high-quality subsidiaries that can be spun off and listed, including New Asia Network, the largest online game operator in the mainland, inschool's parent company SA Soft, and Wemade, the game developer of "Legend 3", etc.
If these high-quality subsidiaries complete their listing plans one after another, Song Yi's personal assets will quadruple. At that time, Song Yi may challenge Hong Kong Island's Li Chaoren for the position of Asia's richest man.
In fact, mainland netizens have long been accustomed to young richest people. After all, Ding Sanshi of NetEase became the richest man in China as early as 2003 with assets of 1.076 billion US dollars. At that time, Ding Sanshi was only 32 years old.
However, in South Korea, where seniority is the key to success, the fact that Song Yi surpassed Chen Jianxi of the Samsung family and became the richest man in South Korea at the age of 29 still came as a huge shock to the Korean people.
Moreover, Song Yi has set many records in becoming the richest man in South Korea. Song Yi is the only young billionaire under the age of 30 among the top 100 of the Forbes list.
Korean netizens are discussing this matter crazily on inschool, Yahoo Korea, Naver, and Daum.
"The richest man in South Korea is only ranked 16th on the Asian rich list? Chairman Song still needs to work harder and strive to become the richest man in Asia first!" 1L netizens are cheering for Song Yi.
"We are both 29 years old, but I can't even afford an apartment in Seoul, but he already has 4.5 billion US dollars. How did he do it?" 2L netizens found it incredible.
"It's because he has good parents. If he didn't come from a modern family, would he be able to earn so much money?" 3L said sourly.
"With so many wealthy people in modern families, how come Song Yi is the only one who can surpass Chen Jianxi? Is it so difficult to acknowledge the excellence of others?" 4L retorted.
Song Yi has also received many congratulatory calls in the past two days, including those from Yahoo's Yang Zhiyuan, Softbank's Son Masayoshi, NetEase's Ding Sanshi, CJ Entertainment's Chen Meijing, and many others.
Perhaps it is the appeal brought by the richest man in South Korea. Lee Jin and Ok Joo Hyun, who were previously struggling over whether to attend Song Yi’s birthday party, have agreed to Lee Hyori’s proposal that the girl group Fin.KL will unite to celebrate Song Yi’s birthday.
There were quite a few artists attending Song Yi's birthday party this time, and they were also proud to have received invitations to Song Yi's birthday party.
Among the male artists who attended the banquet that day were Song Kang-ho, Cha Tae-hyun, Jang Hyuk, Jo In-sung, Lee Joon-gi, Rain, Yeon Jung-hoon and Yoo Jae-suk.
The list of female artists is even more dazzling, including Jun Ji-hyun, Lee Young-ae, Han Ga-in, Song Hye-kyo, Jun Ji-hyun, Son Ye-jin, Ko Hyun-jung, Moon Geun-young, Lee Yoon-hee, Boa, Fin.KL, SES and Girls' Generation.
Kim Tae-hee booked the Korean tourist destination Deokyogi Island for Song Yi to celebrate his birthday so that he would not be disturbed by others.
Deokyogi Island is a small coastal island located in the East Sea, off the coast of South Jeolla Province. This island has beautiful beaches, a variety of delicious seafood, beautiful scenery, and is also a diving destination. It is a paradise for seaside lovers.
In addition to these artists, executives from various subsidiaries of SA Group will also fly to Deyogi Island for vacation. With the expansion of the SA system, each subsidiary of SA Group will have new executives joining every quarter, and they can also take advantage of Song Yi's birthday party to integrate into the SA family.
After Choi Sun-hee noticed the list of invited male artists, she felt that it was a bit strange for Yeon Jung-hoon to appear on the list. After all, Yeon Jung-hoon had never appeared in a TV series produced by SA, and only appeared on ABS's flagship variety show "Running Man" with his wife Han Ga-in. However, when Choi Sun-hee saw Han Ga-in on the list of female artists, she immediately understood. She teased Song Yi, "Good fellow, you are really going to catch all the beauties born in the 1980s in the Korean entertainment industry. In order to invite Han Ga-in, you even went to great lengths to invite Yeon Jung-hoon to attend your birthday party."
"But there are so many people on the island, and her husband Yeon Jung-hoon is always around. Do you really have a chance to attack Han Ga-in?" Choi Sun-hee asked curiously.
Song Yi denied Choi Sun-hee's guess, "You are wrong. First of all, I did not draw up the invitation list. I personally drew up the list of guests from the political and business circles, and the list of artists was drawn up by Xiyuan. I don't know why she invited Yeon Jung-hoon and his wife. Maybe SA Films and Han Ga-in have a cooperation plan next year?"
"Besides, if I'm really interested in Han Ga-in, what does it matter whether her husband is around or not? Have you forgotten that last time you stayed overnight at The One apartment, Jae-chan was at home, didn't I stay at your house anyway?" Song Yi grinned.
(End of this chapter)