Breaking records for the Shangai Stock Exchange, China Film Group Corporation’s $611 million intial public offering will be the largest in the history of Chinese entertainment. The $611 million translates to 4.09 billion yuan.
China Film Co. is a state run movie distributor and is reported on by Forbes to be have a monopoly on that region’s industry. If you want to inport films into that audience, you will be dealing with them or their other state-backed distributor Huaxia.
On paper, China Film Co. has a commanding 58% share of the entire theatrical movie distribution in China. With the money the IPO is expected to raise, they’ve said the captial from sales would be used to fuel growth over the next three years. These plans for growth include the construction of 91 movie theatres, producing 53 movies and 14 television dramas.
In a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the $611 million offering is reported to begin testing investor interest July 22-25 then officially start the offering on July 28. China Film Co. is expected to sell up to 467 million shares on the Shanghai exhange. Though over the past five years, the company had delayed going public on three seperate occations, it seems like this offering is here to stay. Once sales have finished, China Film anticipates it will see its stake fall to 67% – down from it’s previous 93% stake.