"China's Murdoch" intends to spend 800 million yuan to recognize another "brother" in the film and television industry.
Li Ruigang, the "godfather of media" who holds a large number of cultural and entertainment assets including Shaw Brothers, plans to spend more than 800 million yuan to acquire a new "partner" in the film and television industry.
On September 16, Huayi Brothers, which has been subject to ST risk warning, issued an announcement stating that CMC has been confirmed as the restructuring industrial investor of the company.
In accordance with the *Restructuring Agreement* and the *Supplementary Agreement*, CMC will acquire 896 million new shares issued via capital reserve conversion from Huayi Brothers at a consideration of 0.9333 yuan per share, accounting for 17% of the total share capital of the company after restructuring, with a total consideration of about 836 million yuan.
If the restructuring is successfully completed, the controlling shareholder of Huayi Brothers will be changed to CMC, and the actual controller will be changed to Li Ruigang, who is known as the "Murdoch of China".
As the former "leading stock in film and television entertainment", Huayi Brothers once had a glorious period under the leadership of founders Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei. However, since 2018, Huayi Brothers has been mired in continuous losses, with a cumulative loss of more than 8.5 billion yuan over 8 years.
In the first half of this year, Huayi Brothers only achieved operating revenue of 85 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 44.1%; its net profit attributable to shareholders remained in the loss zone, recording a loss of 36 million yuan in the period, narrowing by about 50% year on year.
As the "white knight" in this case, CMC has now grown into a rare cultural industry group in China that owns top-tier IP content creation capabilities, cross-border co-production capabilities and global distribution capabilities at the same time, but it has also faced challenges of declining revenue and fluctuating profits in recent years.
It is worth noting that the capital market does not seem to be very optimistic about the restructuring plan disclosed by Huayi Brothers. On September 17 and 18, the share price of ST Huayi fell by 10.05% and 2.79% respectively, finally closing at 1.74 yuan per share, with its market value dropping below 5 billion yuan.
Huayi Brothers has welcomed a "rescuer", but received a cold response from the capital market?
Since the pre-restructuring procedure was launched in April this year, Huayi Brothers, the former "top player in the domestic film and television industry", has finally got its "rescuer".
On September 16, ST Huayi issued an announcement stating that after a series of selection processes including the "5-in-3" evaluation, "one-on-one negotiation" and "select 1 with 2 alternatives", CMC Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CMC") was confirmed as the restructuring industrial investor for the company's pre-restructuring case on September 15.
On the day the announcement was released, Huayi Brothers and the temporary administrator have officially signed the *Restructuring Investment Agreement* and the *Supplementary Agreement* with CMC, the industrial investor.
The restructuring investment plan shows that Huayi Brothers will take the current total share capital of 2.775 billion shares as the base, implement capital reserve conversion at the ratio of 9 new shares for every 10 existing shares, with a total of 2.497 billion new shares to be issued.
After this conversion is completed, the total share capital of Huayi Brothers will increase to 5.272 billion shares, and all the newly converted shares will not be distributed to the original shareholders.
Among them, CMC will obtain 896 million newly converted shares of Huayi Brothers, accounting for 17% of the total share capital of the company after restructuring; financial investors will obtain 1.128 billion newly converted shares, accounting for 21.4% of the total share capital of the company after restructuring. The remaining converted shares will be partially or fully used to pay off the debts in this bankruptcy restructuring.
In terms of investment consideration, the price for CMC to obtain the shares this time is 0.9333 yuan per share, which is exactly 50% of the average trading price of Huayi Brothers' shares in the 20 trading days before the signing date of the above agreement, which is 1.8666 yuan per share. Calculated based on this, CMC plans to spend about 836 million yuan to take control of Huayi Brothers this time.
It is reported that the above investment funds will be paid in four installments, and the funds will be used to pay bankruptcy expenses, common benefit debts, debts that should be paid in cash at the standard of 1 million yuan for each ordinary creditor, priority claims and other funds required for the implementation of the restructuring plan.
The remaining part will be used to support Huayi Brothers' continuous operation, implement the industrial transformation and upgrading plan, purchase high-quality operating assets with profitability and development prospects, carry out industrial integration and mergers and acquisitions, and provide liquidity support for its subsidiaries.
Regarding the operation plan after restructuring, the announcement mentions that CMC will leverage its own industrial and resource advantages to help improve Huayi Brothers' profitability, and import business resources or inject synergistic assets in due course according to the company's situation, to promote the development of the listed company.
However, the announcement also emphasizes that Huayi Brothers and Huayi Film are still in the pre-restructuring stage, and there is great uncertainty about whether they will enter the formal restructuring procedure subsequently.
Huayi Brothers said that if the company enters the restructuring procedure later and the restructuring is successfully completed, it will help improve the company's operating and financial conditions, enhance its operating capacity, optimize the asset-liability structure. At the same time, the controlling shareholder of the company will be changed to CMC, and the actual controller will be changed to Li Ruigang.
If the restructuring fails, the company will face the risk of being declared bankrupt, and may lose control of Huayi Film, as well as the risk of losing the equity of its wholly-owned subsidiaries. At that time, the company will no longer be able to include Huayi Film in its consolidated statements, which will have a certain impact on the company's assets, current period and post-period profits.
It is worth mentioning that the capital market's response to this restructuring plan is rather "cold". On September 17, ST Huayi closed at 1.79 yuan per share, down 10.05% from the previous trading day.
On September 18, the share price of ST Huayi fell by another 2.79%, closing at 1.74 yuan per share, down more than 90% from its historical high, with a total market value of less than 5 billion yuan.
8 Years of Losses Exceed 8.5 Billion Yuan, The Film Industry Tycoon Once Revealed That He "Sold Paintings to Pay Debts"
As Huayi Brothers is about to change its owner, the legendary story of its founders Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei may come to an end.
Back to 1989, Wang Zhongjun, who was born in a military family, gave up the "iron rice bowl" job at the State Materials Administration and went to the United States to study media major.
In 1994, after returning from his studies, Wang Zhongjun, with 100,000 US dollars he saved in the United States and funds raised from relatives and friends, co-founded the predecessor of Huayi Brothers, Huayi Brothers Advertising Co., Ltd., with his younger brother Wang Zhonglei.
In 1998, Huayi Brothers began to get involved in the film and television business. In that year, under the operation of the two Wang brothers, Huayi Brothers invested in the film *Sorry Baby* directed by Feng Xiaogang. Taking this opportunity, Huayi Brothers formed a deep partnership with Feng Xiaogang, and successfully transformed into a film company.
In 2009, Huayi Brothers was listed on the ChiNext of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming China's "leading stock in film and television entertainment". At its peak, the company had dozens of star artists including Li Bingbing, Fan Bingbing, Zhou Xun, Huang Xiaoming and Deng Chao.
After listing, Huayi Brothers began to pursue diversified layout, and its business gradually extended to internet entertainment, brand licensing, real scene entertainment and industrial investment, trying to find more growth points outside the film business.
At the same time, the revenue of Huayi Brothers also kept rising. By 2017, the company's annual revenue was close to the 4 billion yuan mark, and its net profit attributable to shareholders reached 828 million yuan.
However, in the next year, the operating conditions of Huayi Brothers took a sharp turn for the worse. In 2018, Huayi Brothers achieved total operating revenue of 3.814 billion yuan, down 3.34% year on year; its net profit attributable to shareholders recorded a loss of 1.169 billion yuan, turning from profit to loss year on year.
Since then, the company has been trapped in losses for many consecutive years. Data from Tonghuashun iFinD shows that from 2018 to 2025, Huayi Brothers' cumulative loss over 8 years exceeded 8.5 billion yuan.
Entering 2026, the performance of Huayi Brothers has not yet achieved obvious improvement. The financial report shows that in the first half of this year, Huayi Brothers achieved operating revenue of 85 million yuan, a sharp drop of more than 40% year on year; although its net profit attributable to shareholders narrowed by 51.12% year on year, it still recorded a loss of 36 million yuan.
Regarding the decline of the company's revenue, Huayi Brothers explained that it was mainly caused by the decrease of film and television entertainment business revenue during the reporting period.
Specifically, in the first half of 2026, the revenue of Huayi Brothers from the film and television entertainment sector was 85.3553 million yuan, down 43.77% from the same period of last year; its gross profit margin was about 18.79%, down 15.77 percentage points year on year.
In the same period, the brand licensing and real scene entertainment sector contributed 92,400 yuan of operating revenue to the company, accounting for only 0.11% of the total revenue in the period; while the internet entertainment and other business did not contribute any revenue.
By the end of the first half of the year, the total assets of Huayi Brothers were about 2.13 billion yuan, but the total liabilities reached 2.136 billion yuan, with an asset-liability ratio of 100.28%, which means the company was already insolvent.
It is worth mentioning that apart from being the founder and chairman of Huayi Brothers, Wang Zhongjun is also a well-known art collector.
According to Red Star Capital Bureau, Wang Zhongjun spent 377 million yuan and 185 million yuan respectively in 2014 and 2015 to buy famous paintings by Van Gogh and Picasso at auctions.
However, when Huayi Brothers faced an operating crisis, Wang Zhongjun had to sell a number of his collected artworks to help the company get through the difficulties.
Regarding this, Wang Zhongjun once said at a summit forum, "I don't think it's a shame. Half of the lots at Guardian's night auction last year were my paintings, but I was very happy to sell them. I'm not talking about the return on investment. What I want to say is that for the safety of the company, I can sell any of my collections, and there's nothing to be ashamed of."
With the "Murdoch of China" stepping in, can the former "leading film and television stock" be revitalized?
Tianyancha shows that CMC Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CMC"), which plans to take control of Huayi Brothers this time, was founded in 2015, and its actual controller is Li Ruigang.
Public information shows that Li Ruigang once served as chairman and president of Shanghai Media Group (SMG), party secretary and director of Shanghai Media & TV Group, and other positions.
As a leading figure in the media industry, Li Ruigang was called "the real content king of China" by *People* magazine, and his another well-known title is "Murdoch of China".
In 2010, Li Ruigang founded CMC Capital (formerly known as China Media Capital), the first private equity investment institution focusing on cultural industry in China.
In 2015, Li Ruigang resigned from the position of president of Shanghai Media Group and began to focus on his personal career. In the same year, he founded CMC, and became the largest shareholder of Hong Kong TVB through equity acquisition.
In 2016, under the leadership of Li Ruigang, CMC successfully acquired Fujian sports brand Meike International, which was later renamed Shaw Brothers Holdings. In the same year, Li Ruigang served as the chairman of the board of directors of Shaw Brothers, and joined the board of directors of TVB.
Leida Finance learned from the official website of CMC that CMC has rich resources in entertainment, media, sports and cultural tourism, and owns a series of leading companies in the industry including TVB, Shaw Brothers Pictures, Noon Sunshine, Caixin Media, CMC Pictures, Oriental DreamWorks, UME Cinemas, Zilong Games and Pear Video. It also co-manages Shenzhen Peng City Football Club with the English City Football Group (CFG), and promotes the landing of well-known global IPs such as Legoland theme parks in China.
In January this year, Li Ruigang also carried out a "snake swallows elephant" style integration of his subsidiaries, packaging core film and television assets including 50.05% equity of Noon Sunshine, 100% equity of CMC Pictures and 100% equity of Shanghai Siyuan that operates UME Cinemas, and injecting them into Shaw Brothers, whose market value was less than 500 million Hong Kong dollars, at a consideration of about 4.577 billion yuan.
If CMC successfully takes control of Huayi Brothers this time, it will obtain another A-share listed platform, thus gaining access to the mainland capital market.
In the view of Chen Yanyi, a brand IP marketing expert and chief strategy officer of Guangzhou Isaid, the core value of Huayi Brothers lies in its IP library and film production capabilities accumulated over many years. Incorporating Huayi Brothers into its system essentially fills the gap of CMC in the film production sector, forming a content matrix of "TV series + film" with Noon Sunshine.
However, for CMC, this restructuring also faces considerable challenges. In terms of performance, CMC itself is also facing certain troubles.
According to the restructuring announcement disclosed by ST Huayi this time, CMC achieved revenue of 4.571 billion yuan in 2023; by 2024, the company's revenue dropped to 4.022 billion yuan; and further decreased to 3.178 billion yuan in 2025.
In the same period, the profit indicators of CMC showed a fluctuating trend. From 2023 to 2025, the company recorded net profit of 287 million yuan, 363 million yuan and 297 million yuan respectively.
Regarding the "crisis situation" of Huayi Brothers, can Li Ruigang, known as the "Murdoch of China", "turn the tide"? Leida Finance will continue to pay attention to the development.