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.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS