Chapter 549: Small Returns from Investment

Chapter 549: Small Returns from Investment

Chapter 549: Small Returns from Investment

“The box office of Cold War 2 has exceeded 16 billion?

Congratulations! Congratulations!
I've been busy with my new movie recently, so I haven't paid much attention to this."

At an unknown film and television base in China, Hong Kong director Wang Jing met a reporter from Sohu Entertainment and said this in the interview:
"The success of Cold War 2 proves that Hong Kong films still have a huge market. Mainland audiences do not dislike Hong Kong films, but with more choices, they prefer excellent works.

For example, the movie "Chasing the Dragon" that I am currently co-producing with Galaxy Pictures is a very good Hong Kong movie. You can go to the cinema and show your support for it."

The clever Wong Jing is one of the first Hong Kong directors to join Galaxy Group. Now that he has work to do thanks to Galaxy Group, he naturally supports "Cold War 2".

However, where there are smart people, there are naturally stupid people.

The plot of "Cold War 2" contains some rather explicit content.

For example, the street conflict plot. Because it is not 2019 yet, many people think that this part of the plot is reflecting what happened in 2014, which hurts the fragile hearts of some people.

A Hong Kong star named Du made a lot of irresponsible remarks in Hong Kong because of this, and he did his best to disparage "Cold War 2" and complained about the movie crazily.

But this is just the behavior of a clown. The mainland has already banned it. As the influence of the Galaxy Group becomes stronger and stronger, its tentacles gradually reach out to the Hong Kong circle. Du can't get any good thing in Hong Kong. He is almost hated by everyone and has not been able to get any work for more than a year.

Therefore, Galaxy Pictures did not take it seriously at all, not to mention the slight noise in Hong Kong. Anyway, the box office of "Cold War 2" was still rising, which not only brought box office revenue to Galaxy Pictures, but also pushed its stock price to rise further.

Today, the market value of Galaxy Pictures has exceeded 1500 billion yuan, making it the film and television company with the highest market value in China, leaving behind Huayi, Guangguang, Wanda, and Bona.

And if other companies of Galaxy Group are included, Wang Hao is also the undisputed richest man and number one person in the mainland entertainment industry.

But the reputation of being the richest man and the leader of the entertainment industry is not good to bear.

Honestly speaking, as the Galaxy Group has grown bigger, Wang Hao has become more and more low-key. Apart from directing and company management, he rarely appears in public on a daily basis and basically lives a reclusive life.

Although he didn't do anything wrong, the domestic environment is like this. A rich celebrity will naturally be observed by the public with a magnifying glass.

Moreover, Wang Hao can be said to be deeply bound to the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe]. If anything happens to him, even some gossip and rumors, it can have a significant impact on the company's stock price.

So it’s better to be honest and maintain a regular life of “home-company-studio” every day.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with this life. When Wang Hao took the crew out for a walk and finished the location shooting of "The Three-Body Problem 1", he returned to Shangjing. When he looked at his wife Jing Tian and his son who could already cry out and open his arms to him at home, he felt alive again from his mind to his body.

"Are you going out later?"

Jing Tian asked this as she took Wang Hao's luggage and helped him pack his clothes.

"I won't go out."

Wang Hao shook his head and picked up his son who was lying in the cradle, but perhaps his technique was wrong, or maybe because he had been away on a business trip for a long time, the little guy burst into tears as soon as he picked him up.

"Mom is here! Mom is here!"

Jing Tian quickly put down her clothes, took the child from Wang Hao, patted the little guy's back gently and coaxed him:

"Jingjing, don't cry. You bad dad, you scared Jingjing, didn't you?"

Jing Tian hit Wang Hao lightly a few times in front of the child, which made the child smile.

Well, because he is cute and has good-looking parents, Wang Hao’s son’s nickname is Liangliang.

Watching his wife feeding the child again, Wang Hao could only pack up his things and put them back in the cabinet according to categories.

“Most of the exterior scenes for The Three-Body Problem 1 have been shot, and the rest will focus on special effects, so I will probably be at home for a long time.

Of course, I can’t say for sure, after all, the company is also quite busy.”

Jing Tian, ​​who was busy feeding the baby, didn't pay attention to what he said and said to herself:

"It's nothing actually. It's just that Wanda seems to have some problems, and they found me here."

After hearing this, Wang Hao thought about it for a moment and roughly guessed Wanda's purpose in contacting Jing Tian, ​​which was probably related to its own business conditions.

According to his memories of his previous life, next year, that is, 2017, is destined to be an unforgettable year for Mr. Wang.

As the relationship between the two countries changed, China's overseas investment suddenly tightened. Not only did Wanda lose hope of listing in China, but the bank also asked it to repay its more than 4000 billion yuan of debt as soon as possible.

So, with no other options left, Wanda had to start the self-rescue process of “selling, selling, selling”.

At that time, in April, the Wanda Plaza in Yancheng, Jiangsu was transferred to CITIC Trust; in June, Wanda Changbaishan International Tourism Resort was transferred to Dalian Wanda and Yongyou Technology; in July, the Chongzhou, Datong and Nanchang West Lake Wanda Plazas were transferred together to Zhujiang Life Insurance.

In addition, a century-long merger and acquisition will take place in July. Wanda will sell all the equity of its 7 cultural and tourism cities and 13 hotels to Sunac China and R&F Group for 77 billion yuan and 438 billion yuan respectively.

This was of course a huge loss-making deal for Wanda, but Lao Wang had no choice but to cut off his arm to survive.

And by 2018, Wanda still continued on the path of self-rescue of "selling, selling, selling". It successively sold overseas projects in London, Sydney and Los Angeles, and sold 12.77% of Wanda Film's shares to Alibaba.

Then, Wanda had to pay a total of more than 300 billion yuan in principal and interest as compensation for the listing bet agreement it had signed previously because it failed to fulfill its listing commitment on time.

So this year, Lao Wang found Tencent, Suning, JD.com and Sunac, injected 340 billion yuan into Wanda Commercial, and signed a new gambling agreement, requiring Wanda Commercial Management to be listed in 2023.

It can be said that the next two to three years will be the most difficult transformation period for Wanda. And this difficult process did not start in 2017. It is estimated that Wanda has already encountered difficulties and is on the eve of the storm.

"Okay, I'll contact Lao Wang and see what's going on."

Wang Hao replied to Jing Tian in this way, and Jing Tian just mentioned it and didn't say anything else.

For her, after getting married, her husband and children are everything to her, and she will not get involved in various things. She herself is not interested in these things. This time, helping to deliver a message is already considered giving some face to the elders at home.

As for Wang Hao, he certainly cannot carry Old Wang's burden. This is a transformation of the country's overall economy, a trend of the times and a general trend. It is far beyond human control and can only be avoided.

However, Wanda is at least a little stronger than Evergrande, and their cinema chains and Wanda Pictures are also good supporting assets for Galaxy Group. If the price is right, Galaxy Group may be able to buy them or acquire a stake in them.

Wang Hao thought this in his mind, and the next day he asked people in the company to collect detailed information about Wanda’s current business operations. After getting the data, he contacted Lao Wang.

Wang Jianlin was relieved after receiving the call from Wang Hao, but after the two of them exchanged some politeness and began to test the price, this guy hung up the phone in dissatisfaction.

There is no way. The difference between the two parties' offers is quite large. It's not that Wang doesn't want to sell the cinema and Wanda Pictures, but now in 2016, he still has a certain fluke mentality.

As for Wang Hao, knowing the general situation of Wanda in the future, his psychological price is naturally very low.

Therefore, the first communication between the two parties was unsuccessful, but Wang Hao was not in a hurry. Anyway, the longer it dragged on, the worse Wanda’s situation would become.

Therefore, after listing the acquisition of Wanda Pictures and cinema chains as a long-term concern, Wang Hao became busy with other things, such as inspecting the newly opened fourth branch of Galaxy Shopping Plaza.

As a new growth point for Galaxy Group's [Asset Management Business Group], Galaxy Shopping Plaza opened three branches in TZ District around [Galaxy Cinema Metropolis] and has been operating continuously for more than two years. After everything went well, it finally moved out of TZ District and began to expand to other areas of Shangjing City.

The location chosen for the fourth store of this expansion is near Nanhai Zi Park in DX District next to TZ District. This can be considered a steady and cautious approach and does not put too much pressure on the logistics supply system established by the [Asset Management Business Group].

As for the operating status of Galaxy Shopping Plaza?
In recent years, through the output of film and television culture, the Galaxy Group has a strong brand influence in Beijing and is one of the large enterprises with a very good reputation.

Coupled with its high standards of management and product quality, the newly opened fourth Galaxy Shopping Plaza was packed with people as soon as it opened, making several large chain supermarkets in the surrounding area feel like they were facing a formidable enemy.

Wang Hao, who went to inspect the situation, was also extremely satisfied with this.

Create happiness with your heart and discover a better life.

This is the business philosophy of Galaxy Group. Making movies can bring happiness to the audience, and running a good supermarket can also make the general public happy.

Moreover, supermarket projects like this can easily form linkages with commercial real estate and cinema chains.

Since Wang Hao has already set his eyes on the commercial real estate and cinema chains that Wanda is preparing to sell, he will naturally prepare for the future and look three steps ahead.

Don't underestimate high-quality supermarkets like Galaxy Shopping Plaza.

You have to know that in Wang Hao's previous life, even in 2025 when the economy was in recession, supermarkets like Pang Donglai or Sam's Club with high-quality goods could attract many high-quality customers from the middle class and even drive the economic development of a place.

This is enough to show that the general public does not want to live a high-quality life, but they just do not have the channels to live a more secure and high-quality life.

After inspecting the Galaxy Shopping Plaza, Wang Hao went to the headquarters of OPPO and DJI in Shanghai Beijing and attended their year-end shareholders' meetings as a major shareholder.

As for OPPO, 2016 was its most dazzling year. Its global smartphone shipments reached 9940 million units, a year-on-year increase of 133%, ranking fourth in the world. Combined with its average selling price of approximately US$186 (approximately RMB 1262), OPPO's mobile phone business revenue was approximately RMB 1254 billion, doubling from RMB 2015 billion in 580.

This naturally made OPPO's chairman Chen Mingyong happy and proud, and also allowed the investors present to obtain returns that were sufficient to satisfy them.

Although the business situation is good, at the shareholders' meeting, Wang Hao, as the major shareholder, took advantage of his foresight and analyzed the future international situation to remind OPPO's management team to pay attention to future chip procurement issues to prevent OPPO from being strangled by the US chip blockade ban.

OPPO also attached certain importance to this. On the one hand, Galaxy Group has a lot of business in Hollywood and has a good relationship with Sony. On the other hand, Galaxy Group also has connections among senior domestic officials. Maybe Wang Hao heard some rumors.

Fortunately, the impact of this incident on OPPO will not be particularly serious. After all, its mobile phone business is still mainly focused on the low-end market, and its dependence on high-end chips is not serious. At most, its profit margin will be affected by market fluctuations.

Compared with OPPO, which takes the low-end route, DJ Technology, which has core technology, is less worried about technological blockade.

2016 is a crucial year for DJ to vigorously develop the global drone market.

This year, through technological breakthroughs, product iterations and global layout, DJ has won a lot of orders in the consumer drone market, and has established a broad moat in professional fields and industry applications.

Today, DJI has a nearly 70% share of the global commercial drone market and a 47% share of the U.S. commercial market. It can be said that with its technological innovation and quality control, DJI has become the first Chinese brand to establish a dominant position in the global consumer electronics field. It can almost be regarded as the "Apple of drones."

Therefore, even if there are problems in the relationship between the two countries in the future, DJI has nothing to worry about.

Wang Hao is also very relieved about this. He has already read DJI's financial report this year. Its revenue in 2016 was as high as 97.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 63%; net profit was 19.3 billion yuan, and the profit margin was 19.7%.

Its cash flow is abundant enough to support DJI's subsequent R&D investment and global market expansion.

Therefore, when Wang Hao came to DJI to attend the shareholders' meeting, he focused more on their company's technological innovation and breakthroughs.

After all, science and technology are the primary productive forces. The reason why Wang Hao invested in DJI was not only its future development and investment profits, but more importantly, the emergence of equipment such as drones has also greatly promoted film and television production technology.

Especially in recent years, Galaxy Group has cooperated with DJI, using its own technological accumulation and relationship with Sony to help DJI a lot, allowing it to avoid many traps and detours in many aspects such as optics and imaging.

Now that so much has been invested in this area, Wang Hao must of course inspect it to see what the results are and whether it can provide some support for the Galaxy Group's subsequent development plans.

(End of this chapter)