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

Chapter 516 Regaining Confucianism
Although well-intentioned, Zhao Jinmai's plan was ultimately not realized.

It was her daughter's first time to go abroad to record a program. Zhao's mother rushed to Beijing after the exam and planned to go with her. The little girl thought of various excuses but couldn't get rid of her mother's supervision. She could only board the plane to Tokyo in a depressed mood.

Meng Bai couldn't help but laugh when he saw the WeChat message from Mai Mai, which was full of complaints from a young girl in love. There was no doubt that he was the one who called Zhao's mother over.

Calculating the time, it would be August when Zhao Jinmai returned from Tokyo, and school would have to start in a few days. And after school, it would be her birthday in less than a month.

From last year's birthday to this year's birthday, it was exactly one year. According to the original agreement, his identity as "boyfriend" was over.

Just after sending a peace blessing to the little girl, Meng Bai heard a teasing female voice next to him: "Which girlfriend are you chatting with, Mr. Meng?"

"I find that you are becoming more and more concerned about my love life, Sister Xi."

Meng Bai turned off the screen and looked at Chen Zhixi who was walking over: "Why, are you planning to switch careers and become a matchmaker as the industry is in a downturn?"

"Haha, if I were a matchmaker, I would definitely hang your photo in the first row at the front door with the label 'scumbag', so that those girls can learn from it and avoid being cheated."

After joking around for a while, Chen Zhixi sat down next to Meng Bai and said with emotion, "The screening schedule for "Accidental Murder" increased to 60% yesterday. If it were a summer movie in previous years, it would definitely be the winner of the year."

"It's not bad now. Yesterday's single-day box office was 26 million, and Maoyan predicts that the total box office will reach billion."

In the domestic film market, the summer season and the Spring Festival season are the two most important seasons of the year. Compared with the Spring Festival season, which is mainly for family-friendly movies, the summer season lasts longer and contains more film themes, and has always been a battlefield for various blockbusters.

However, this year's summer season is a little different. Affected by the dual impact of the film and television winter and the flu, the number of film projects that have started shooting in the past year or so has been greatly reduced, and the new projects have not been completed, which happens to be a time when there is a gap between the old and the new.

In previous years, from the beginning of July to the end of August, there would be more than a dozen big-budget movies alone, and countless other small movies.

However, none of these are available this year. Among the movies released in July, only three can be considered blockbusters: "The Accidental Murderer", "1921" and "A Chinese Doctor".

The last two are a main historical theme, talking about the founding of the Party in 1921; the other is also a main theme, talking about last year's influenza relief.

One of these two is a classic subject, and the other is a hot topic 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 theaters is "The Accidental Detective", which was jointly created by the repeatedly proven high-grossing combination of "Meng Bai + Chen Sicheng".

For film producers, if offline box office is not good, they can still sell online copyright to make up for it. However, cinema chains and theaters only have offline, and they are actually the ones who are most eager to produce box office hits.

The pre-sale box office of "The Accidental Murderer" was over 6000 million, ranking first among the films of the same period. Upon seeing this, the cinema chain directly gave it 32% of the first-day screenings.

Facts have proved that the trust of the cinema chain has not been betrayed. After the release of "The Accidental Murderer", the box office on the first day was 2.3 million, accounting for 45%, and the single-day box office has remained above 2 million since then.

As soon as this data came out, people in the industry understood two things: first, "The Accidental Murderer" is indeed very strong and can fully support the status of a summer blockbuster; second, this year's film market is really sluggish, with a box office of less than 300 million yuan accounting for nearly half of the total single-day box office.

There is no other way. The flu situation in various regions has been recurring, and theaters have had to close at any time. Even theaters in low-risk areas must maintain the "seating at intervals" rule, and the number of people allowed in a single show is limited.

As the saying goes, "When there is no tiger in the mountain, the monkey becomes king." The movie "The Accidental Detective" would normally have grossed only over a billion yuan, but now that it has been released, the total score is estimated to more than double.

As the main producer of the film, Heng Teng is naturally the happiest.

The company's movies sold well at the box office. At the same time, the "Sisters Who Make Waves 2" and the recent "Beginning" launched on its video platform also performed extremely well. The stock price began a series of small increases.

To investors and the outside world, Hengten Networks is now flourishing. However, what no one knows is that the company is facing a major reshuffle of power.

Meng Bai and Chen Zhixi were sitting at the conference table chatting casually. Together with them were Ke Liming, Tencent representatives, and 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 in a bad mood. He forced a smile at Meng Bai and others present, and then said directly: "I guess you have all heard about what I am going to talk about in today's meeting, so I will get straight to the point. As the largest shareholder of Hengten Network, Hengda currently holds 34.5% of the company's shares. Due to the need for strategic adjustments to the group, it is preparing to sell 19.5% of its shares."

"According to the previous contract, the remaining shareholders of the company have the right of first refusal. At the same time, for the sake of the continuity of the company's operations, we do not want to introduce new investors. So we called everyone here mainly to discuss with each other and see if anyone has any plans to acquire shares, and at what price and how much they are prepared to acquire..."

After listening to Zhou Cheng's words, everyone in the room suddenly had an idea in their mind.

Everyone heard this news some time ago, and no one took it as groundless.

Evergrande has been very 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 have begun to emerge.

At the same time, Evergrande is selling assets through various means to raise funds.

Although Zhou Cheng just said that it was due to the "need for strategic adjustments", everyone understood that Evergrande was obviously unable to hold on and had to sell its few high-quality assets to pay off the debts.

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, for a large transaction between shareholders like this, it is impossible to calculate directly according to the real-time stock price. If you really want to calculate it, it would be very high to be able to sell half of it in the end.

Whether it is 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 would be a drop in the bucket.

But as Meng Bai has always said to Chen Zhixi, it doesn’t matter whether Evergrande lives or dies, 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 gets it, it will affect the company's subsequent distribution of rights.

If Meng Bai and his team can take over all of it, Ruyi's shareholding will exceed 50%, and it will directly become a holding company. If Tencent takes it, then its shares will exceed Ruyi's and become the new largest shareholder.

Of course, it is not necessary for a single company to take up all the shares, and such a large amount of funds cannot be taken out easily.

Such a large-scale transaction involving billions of dollars certainly cannot be decided in a day or two. Therefore, for the next period of time, Heng Teng's external businesses continued to operate normally, but fierce negotiations began internally.

The negotiations lasted from early July to August, and the parties finally reached a preliminary agreement.

Evergrande will sell this part of the shares for HK$52 billion, of which the original Ruyi party will acquire 9.5% and Tencent will acquire 10%. Of Ruyi's 9.5%, Huguang holds 6% and Ke Liming and his team hold 3.5%.

As a result, the total shares held by Arc Light 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 vacation was coming to an end, Hengten Network officially issued an announcement to the public, announcing the relevant matters regarding the equity transfer.

At the same time, Hengten's management also ushered in a wave of changes. All the former Evergrande executives resigned, Meng Bai became the new chairman, and Chen Zhixi will take over as president.

They have also reported to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and are preparing to change the company name from the current "Heng Teng Network" to the new "China Confucianism".

As a result, since the merger and acquisition in 2019, Meng Bai and Chen Zhixi took 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)