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Chinese movie industry turns to capital markets

“The capital markets are starting to recognize Chinese movie studios.” — Yu Dong, chief executive at Beijing Polybona Film Distribution Co

A third leading Chinese movie studio is aiming for a listing — this time on the New York Stock Exchange — as the country’s entertainment companies turn to the capital markets to raise funds.

Beijing Polybona Film Distribution Co (保利博納) is aiming to go public in the second half of next year or the first half of 2011, chief executive Yu Dong (于冬) told reporters in a phone interview yesterday. The company will start drafting its listing application early next year, he said.

Polybona’s rivals are making similar moves. Huayi Brothers Media Corp (華誼兄弟) debuted on China’s new small companies market in Shenzhen on Friday, surging 148 percent on its first day of trading. The state-run China Film Group (中國電影集團) is planning to list in Shanghai, spokesman Weng Li (翁立) told reporters recently.

Yu said he wants to list Polybona in the US, where entertainment stocks are common, to open up the company to US and other foreign investors.

China still restricts foreign access to its domestic stock markets to certain institutional investors.

He said Polybona has already received funding from the venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners China, with the second company investing 100 million yuan (US$15 million).

“The capital markets are starting to recognize Chinese movie studios,” he said.

The executive declined to reveal Polybona’s revenue or profits, but said he estimated its movies would account for 800 million yuan to 1 billion yuan, or 20 percent of the Chinese box office this year.

Polybona’s businesses encompass movie distribution, production and multiplexes. Among its recent productions are the upcoming Jackie Chan (成龍) historical epic Big Soldier, the historical thriller Bodyguards and Assassins, starring Donnie Yen (甄子丹), the police thriller Overheard and Mulan.

Yu said Polybona will have 50 movie screens by the end of the year, but hopes to increase that number to 100 by the end of next year and 200 in three to five years.

While still small compared to the US, the Chinese box office is growing rapidly. Government statistics show Chinese revenues surged from 920 million yuan in 2003 to 4.3 billion yuan last year — compared with US$9.8 billion in the US last year.

The number of movie screens in China grew by 570 to nearly 4,100 — an average of 1.6 new screens every day.
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