Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 284: All the Money Spent
Meng Bai carefully looked through the film list on the screen.

There are more than a dozen projects, some of which are controlled by ArcLight and some are co-produced, and each one has an investment of at least tens of millions.

Just adding these up, it’s nearly 200 million.

This is why he always says that he spends money quickly.

"Okay, no problem. Let's send out the film list before the Spring Festival." Meng Bai instructed.

I also asked the head of the administration department about the preparations for next week’s Arclight Annual Meeting. Now that everything that needed to be discussed had been concluded, the first planning meeting of the new year was finally over.

"Sister Jing, please wait a moment and come to my office."

"Ah good."

Chen Jing was a little curious, but she still responded. After going back to tidy up, she came to Meng Bai's office.

"Deng Deng."

"Please come in."

Chen Jing pushed the door open and entered the room. She first saw Meng Bai behind the desk, and then a woman sitting opposite him.

"Boss Meng, you're looking for me?"

"Come, Sister Jing, let me introduce someone to you."

Meng Bai gestured to the woman opposite him and said, "This is Gu Fei. She used to work in the investment banking department of JP Morgan and is now the new head of Qiming Venture Partners."

As the scale of Pinduoduo's financing rounds gradually expands, the equity and capital matters involved are becoming more and more numerous.

In addition, Meng Bai has some new investment targets to add, and relying on Chen Jing's "part-time" management is obviously not enough.

So he used Huang Zheng's connections to try to find a professional to take charge.

This Gu Fei used to work on Wall Street and just returned to China a few years ago, so I was introduced to him.

Similar to Chen Jing, Gu Fei is also in her thirties, and is the type of woman who looks like a typical elite at first glance.

"Mr. Chen, nice to meet you. Hello."

"You're welcome, Mr. Gu. Welcome to join Arclight."

The two women shook hands and smiled at each other.

"Very good. During this period of time, please, Sister Jing, check the relevant data with Gu Fei." Meng Bai said, "We will have several new projects soon."

Of course, he didn't ask the two people to come here today just to introduce them to each other, but for some serious business.

Seeing Meng Bai talking about work, Chen and Gu's expressions became serious. They sat down at the table and listened attentively.

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.

This round of financing was led by Sequoia Capital, with a total financing amount of US$3.3 million.

"We have limited funds, so it is inevitable that our shares will be diluted." Meng Bai looked at Gu Fei, "My request is to try to ensure that the diluted shares can be above 5%, so that we can cope with the subsequent D round of financing before the listing."

"Okay, I understand what you mean." Gu Fei nodded in response.

Meng Bai then started talking about the second item.

"Qiyi TV will also have a $15 billion Series C round of financing after the new year. I have talked with their CEO Gong, and by then we will have a certain share in the form of strategic cooperation, content support and funding."

Compared with Pinduoduo, the investment in Qiyi TV is much simpler.

Because his main purpose is to deepen the cooperative relationship between ArcLight and the platform, and he only joined in the C round, so the subsequent increase will not be very large.

So you don’t have to consider as much as Pinduoduo, just make sure everything goes as normal.

After the financing, ArcLight’s shareholding will not be very large, probably only a few tenths.

In fact, this is not a small amount. You know, Gong Yu, the "boss" of Qiyi TV, only owns 1.8% of the shares.

The real major shareholders are mainly large Internet capitals such as Baidu and Xiaomi, and the top three shareholders alone account for more than 80%.

In addition to Qiyi TV, another capital financing is Taiyang Chuanhe. As a new brokerage company, although it was established for a short time, it relies on Yang Ming's resources over the years and the support of the other two major shareholders Huang Xiaoming and Huguang, so it has also occupied a place in the industry.

Especially as Papi Jiang, a celebrity under Yang Ming and a classmate of his, became popular on the Internet last year, they developed a new "Internet celebrity" track that is different from traditional brokerage companies, and it has attracted much attention from the capital market.

So starting from the end of last year, after a series of negotiations, it was finally decided that China Everbright Financial Holdings would lead the investment and initiate a RMB 1.2 million Series A financing round.

This amount of funds will probably account for 10% of the shares. In other words, Taiyang Chuanhe’s current market valuation is around 10 billion.

Qiming Venture Partners will also participate in this round of financing. Meng Bai’s requirement is also very simple. He just needs to ensure that he can still maintain his 20% stake unchanged.

Hu Guang was previously the third largest shareholder of Taiyang Chuanhe. After this round of dilution, the ranking should remain unchanged, but the gap between him and the second shareholder Huang Xiaoming will be almost negligible.

Three financings, this is Qiming Venture Partners’ main task this year.

But then again, the most important one is Pinduoduo, and the other two can only be regarded as supporting roles.

But no matter how important they are, after investing in three projects, Meng Bai’s money has basically run out.
-
As the Spring Festival is getting closer, companies have begun their year-end celebrations.

The development of Arclight Film and Television has not started yet, but Meng Bai has attended the annual meeting of Taiyang Chuanhe as one of the shareholder representatives.

The biggest feature of an agency's annual meeting is that all of its artists and celebrities will be present.

After more than a year of development, although the big names in Taiyang Chuanhe are still only Yang Tianbao and Zhou Dongyu, there are 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 queen-like 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."

"Develop in the mainland..."

Meng Bai paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Then I wonder what Miss Zhang thinks of the '1992 Consensus'?"

The smile on Zhang Junning's face 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 people, and we are one family."

As a graduate student from Taiwan's Central University, Zhang Junning's academic level is considered a "top student" in the entertainment industry.

At the very least, there is no need to explain to her what the "1992 Consensus" is.

Don’t worry about whether you support it verbally or not, as long as you can say it out loud, it’s fine.

Meng Bai also returned to his normal smile: "Welcome Miss Zhang to join Taiyang Chuanhe, and we hope to have more opportunities to cooperate with you in the future."

Zhang Junning's eyes lit up, and she immediately said, "If Mr. Meng has a suitable role in the future, I hope you can consider me."

After that, she joked, "I don't actually have any big brands, so it's still very cheap."

"Haha, as a producer, I still like this quality of Miss Zhang."

After chatting briefly for a few more sentences, the two said goodbye to each other and parted ways.

After walking around the site and chatting with several company executives, Meng Bai finally got some free time.

Although it was an annual meeting, not all contracted artists were present.

People like Li Yitong, Song Zhi, Zhang Ruoyun and Bai Lu from Arc Light were all out doing promotions or filming and did not come.

This is also the reason why Meng Bai is so relaxed today.

Just as I was wondering whether I should go find Bai Yu to have a chat, a familiar female voice suddenly sounded beside me.

"Master...Hello, Mr. Meng."

Meng Bai turned around, only to see Zhu Xudan, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, standing beside him and looking at him with some nervousness.

(End of this chapter)