Chapter 414: Spring Arrives for Hong Kong Film Industry

In the following days, Yang Wendong gradually learned the specific details of Hang Seng Bank's IPO.

In addition to Yang Wendong, many well-known Chinese families also participated, especially some old families, such as the He family;

The only thing these families have in common is that they are not involved in the banking and financial industries. It is obvious that Ho Sin Heng is also trying to win over allies.

This is also the normal routine of many Hong Kong tycoons. Anyway, they are going to go public, and some stocks must be sold. It is better to find some powerful families and bind everyone together through interests. In this way, any cooperation in the future can be mutually beneficial.
In other words, Changxing Group’s greatest wealth lies in the mind of Yang Wendong, the time traveler. Otherwise, if they were doing business normally, they would also appropriately introduce other capital.

By the end of October, Changxing Financial Investment Company and Hang Seng Bank finally reached an agreement, acquiring 989.69% of Hang Seng Bank's shares for HK$3 million, and the funds would also be deposited into Hang Seng Bank's account.

Changxing Financial only paid 200 million Hong Kong dollars in cash, and the rest was a loan from Hang Seng Bank. Yang Wendong felt that this deal was a great deal, although he still had to pay interest and repay the principal later, but it was not much.

The most important thing is that I have become a shareholder of Hang Seng Bank, so if a bank run occurs, I will have a reason to intervene.
On October 10, another larger transaction also reached the final stage.

On this day, Shen Yufan and Zou Wenhuai, the heads of Changxing Finance, both came to Yang Wendong's office in Changxing Building.

"Mr. Yang." The two of them greeted him.

Yang Wendong waved his hand and said, "Sit down."

After the two sat down, the assistant served tea and left. Zou Wenhuai said, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Shen and I have been working together on the purchase of cinemas in Southeast Asia. We have temporarily reached a price."

"How much?" Yang Wendong also put down the pen in his hand and asked.

Investing in cinema chains in Southeast Asia can not only help the Hong Kong film industry, but is also the first step in one's own investment in Southeast Asia. In the future, based on this business, if it is managed well, and if one gets to know various local people and handles relationships well, then one can look for opportunities to enter other industries.

Shen Yufan replied: "1310 million US dollars, this seems to be the bottom line of the Lu family."

"You negotiated for 150 million US dollars? Not bad?" Yang Wendong smiled. Lu Yunsheng's original offer was 1460, but this itself sounded like a high price.

Shen Yufan said: "Yes, the main reason is that although there are other buyers, these buyers only buy part of it, not all of it, which is more complicated for the Lu family;
We are the only one that can take over the whole business, so we naturally have room to lower the price.”

"Okay then." Yang Wendong nodded and asked, "What about finance? Which bank can give us the best loan?"

1300 million US dollars is a large sum of money, even for Yang Wendong today. When purchasing a property like this that has mortgage value in itself, he will of course try his best to use a loan.

Shen Yufan replied: "I have also discussed with several banks in Singapore. Among them, OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore offer the lowest interest rates and various conditions are considered good;
So my idea is to let the two of them form a banking group and jointly lend us money, so as to avoid our overseas assets being too risky for one financial institution and causing possible uncontrollable risks;

In addition, Mr. Yang, your Custom Future Group will focus on investing in Singapore, so we also need to cooperate with multiple banks, which can maximize our interests and avoid some financial risks. "

"Okay, go back and write me a detailed report." Yang Wendong said, "Once the report from the headquarters arrives, I will sign it if there is no problem."

No matter it is procurement from Hong Kong or outside, unless the price is negotiated by him personally, such as Walmart before, then if it is agreed upon by others, there will be early follow-up and later review by headquarters staff. If the amount is larger or the transaction is more complicated, there will be third-party audits.

This is also to avoid internal risks. After all, as the company grows larger, it is impossible for the boss Yang Wendong to always decide many things. Appropriate delegation of power is still necessary, but at the same time, sufficient supervision, monitoring, auditing, and even subsequent legal investigations must be ensured.

Only a good system can ensure the long-term normal operation of an enterprise.

"Okay." Shen Yufan and Zou Wenhuai both agreed.

Time soon came to early November. When several reports arrived at the company headquarters and passed the review, Changxing Group's largest overseas property acquisition since its establishment officially began.

Because the core purpose of these properties is still for the film industry, the properties belong to Changxing Film Company. However, Changxing Film Company certainly cannot afford the money. Therefore, Yang Wendong mobilized 300 million US dollars from Changxing Industry and injected it into Changxing Film Company.

Subsequently, with the cooperation of Changxing Financial Company and an international law company in Hong Kong, Changxing Film Company successfully signed a cooperation agreement with Singapore's OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, jointly borrowing US$1000 million to purchase 82 cinemas and their properties from the Lu family.

At this point, Changxing Group has established its own base in Southeast Asia.

On November 11, after completing the transaction, Yang Wendong brought a group of people to the office of Singapore's Capitol Cinema again. Looking at the scenery of people coming to watch movies outside the window, he smiled and said: "Now the number of theaters in our Changxing Cinema Line has doubled at one time."

"Yes, we only have more than 40 cinemas in Hong Kong." Zou Wenhuai also said: "This deal is enough to ensure that each of our own film companies will be able to double their profits in the future;

Owning our own cinemas can earn us much more than selling movies abroad, and the returns are much higher. We also have enough funds to make more movies.”

"So who do you think is stronger now, us or Shaw?" Yang Wendong asked with a smile.

Zou Wenhuai paused and said, "If you, Mr. Yang, are not considered for your support, we are actually on par with Shaw Brothers. Although Shaw Brothers' cinema chain is not as big as ours and the locations are not as good, they have more of them, and the early promotions have been longer, and the ticket prices are cheaper.

Even if we do better here, due to the different price points and the limited cinema locations, it is unlikely to affect Shaw Brothers’ base.”

"Indeed, Lu Yuntao and I have the same business logic. Now we are competing with Shaw Cinemas, whether in Hong Kong or Southeast Asia." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "But it's good this way. Competition brings motivation. If only one company is left, it will lose its innovative spirit."

Any industrial sector, service industry or even art will inevitably lose its motivation to move forward if it has no competitors. This is a common phenomenon in the history of human business and even at the national level.

If his goal was just to make some money from Hong Kong movies, then finding ways to defeat competitors and then monopolize the market would be an idea; but his goal was to create more high-quality movies, so having competitors would be better.

"I see. Shaw Brothers is indeed very powerful." Zou Wenhuai said, "In recent years, they have also produced some good movies."

"That's good." Yang Wendong added, "In addition, after returning to Hong Kong, announce this matter and inform all Hong Kong film companies that my Changxing Cinema Line will also give priority to Hong Kong films in its overseas theaters. As for foreign films, as long as their films can make money for my theater line, the profits will definitely be much higher than before."

It is very difficult to sell Waifu because the core of Waifu is to sell to overseas Chinese theaters; but more than half of these are controlled by Shaw Brothers and the former Lu Brothers, and they only play their own movies. Therefore, except for Taiwan, other film companies cannot sell to Southeast Asia unless they have a small hit, or they can only have Lu Brothers and Shaw Brothers work together to suppress the price.

Now that he controls Lu Yuntao's former cinema chain, it is only natural for him to help his own films, but he will definitely not only show films from his own film company, as this will easily hinder his own innovation.

"If so, it is indeed good news for Hong Kong film companies." Zou Wenhuai paused and said, "But will this hurt the interests of our own film companies?" Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "Only when a hundred flowers bloom can a hundred flowers bloom. If we want Hong Kong films to become good enough, then it is not enough for us and Shaw Brothers to do it alone.

As for the impact on us, we don't have to worry too much. We don't produce many movies at the moment, unlike Shaw Brothers and Luk Brothers before. We will definitely have enough movies to play here.
We don’t have to worry when we have more movies of our own in the future, because I will continue to expand the cinema chain in Southeast Asia in the future, and by then we will have more screens available to us.”

Today's acquisition of Lu's Line is just the first step. In the future, we will definitely expand in Southeast Asia. One is for Hong Kong films, and the other is to share a piece of the pie of Southeast Asian economic development.
"Okay, our own movies are indeed not enough for so many theaters." Zou Wenhuai asked again: "What about Shaw Brothers' movies?"

Yang Wendong said with a smile: "Of course not, unless they promise that our movies can be shown in their theaters, then we can all compete fairly."

Generally, under the management of a larger modern government, theaters and film companies cannot be the same company. For example, in the United States today, Hollywood is not allowed to control theaters, and even distribution companies need to be independent. Of course, after the 80s, control was relaxed again in order to develop the economy.

In a small place like Hong Kong, monopoly is rampant. Several large film companies have their own cinema chains and only play their own movies, controlling the entire upstream and downstream.

For capitalists, it is a short-term benefit, but the hidden danger lies in the lack of innovation. In history, Shaw Brothers films were defeated by Golden Harvest in the later period, and the fundamental reason was the same.

"That's probably impossible." Zou Wenhuai said with a smile.

Yang Wendong also nodded and said, "The operation of the theaters here should be handed over to the previous people. You just need to leave a few people here to cooperate with them."

"I understand." Zou Wenhuai agreed.

Two days later, Yang Wendong and others returned to Hong Kong, and rumors gradually spread about the merger and acquisition involving nearly HK$6000 million.

The Hong Kong Chinese Daily was also the first to expose this matter. On the front page, there were 60 zeros, which made it impossible for people not to pay attention.

"6000 million Hong Kong dollars?"

After seeing this number, several teenagers holding newspapers said sadly: "I don't even have 600 on me. Sigh, comparing yourself with others will only make you depressed."

"Haha, Aaron, the King of Post-it Notes used to live in a squatter hut, which was much worse than yours."

"Don't say that, there's no comparison." The young man sighed.

Many people in other newspapers had the same reaction. The figure of 6000 million may not be very high compared with some previous large investments in Hong Kong, but this seems to be the first time that Hong Kong Chinese capital has invested in Southeast Asia on such a large scale.

At the headquarters of Shaw Brothers Film Company, Shaw Yi-fu looked at the newspaper with an unpleasant expression. After a long while, he let out a sigh and said, "I didn't expect Lu Yuntao to die. I thought I had one less competitor, but I didn't expect that his theater chain in Nanyang was actually bought by Yang Wendong."

"There's nothing we can do. Yang Wendong's capital is much greater than ours." said someone nearby.

Shao Yifu added: "But I can't understand why Yang Wendong is willing to spend so much money to invest in Nanyang's cinema chain when he has so many industries under his control, and any one of them is much better than the movie industry?"

In Hong Kong's current film market, the highest box office is only one million Hong Kong dollars. Even if overseas donations are included, this movie will only make about one million at most, and this is the best one. Most of the time, it only makes tens of thousands. At the end of the year, even if Shaw Brothers is so strong, it only makes a few million in profit.

This amount of profit is far beyond the reach of Changxing Group, let alone medium-sized real estate companies. There are many real estate communities that can make millions of dollars each.

The person next to him said, "I don't know about that. Maybe it's because of his hobby? Lu Yuntao is also a family member of a Nanyang mining tycoon. He came to work in the film industry because he likes it, right?"

"If that's the case, it will be troublesome." Shao Yifu sighed.

When a huge amount of capital enters a small market, it is a disaster for the original players.
"I'm actually worried about this." The person next to him said, "The newspaper said that Changxing Film Company will work hard to send movies from other Hong Kong film companies to Southeast Asia. As long as the quality is good, it will definitely earn higher foreign income.

Obviously, Changxing Film Company is also taking this opportunity to advertise and let other film companies know.”

"He also accepts other film companies?" Shao Yifu thought for a moment, then said, "This is not surprising. Their theaters in Hong Kong also accept other films, and they can even compete with their own films. I don't know whether this is Zou Wenhuai or Yang Wendong's intention."

"It's probably Yang Wendong." said the person next to him.

Shao Yifu said, "Allowing other movies to be shown in their theaters, it seems that Yang Wendong may also want to focus on the theater business. This will save a lot of money for many small film companies, and the competition in the film industry will be much stronger in the future."

"Maybe our movie can be shown in theaters, too?" someone nearby speculated, "If that works, we'll have another sales channel."

Whether it is Hong Kong or Southeast Asia, cinema chains have coverage, so if the film is released in one more cinema chain, it will definitely make more money.

"I don't think it's likely." Shao Yifu said, "But you should still go and ask."

"Ok."

Naturally, many small film companies in Hong Kong quickly paid attention to this major event that affected them.

So, many people gathered together:
"Will our movies be screened in Southeast Asia in the future? Wouldn't that mean we can all make a fortune?"

"I think it's unlikely. They spent 6000 million to buy the cinema chain just to make things convenient for us?"

"How is it impossible? Didn't Changxing Group invest in so many cinemas in Hong Kong before, and they also released the films for us? It's not a problem. And after they had their own film company, they didn't affect us much, right?"

"Yeah, Mr. Yang is really different from the previous theaters?"

"Then everyone should go back and make two more movies seriously. In the future, we will be able to easily earn money from foreign countries."

"Haha, you're right."

A group of movie company bosses are very happy. With enough market, the spring of Hong Kong film industry is coming.
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)

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