Invest in "Remains of Sin" and sell 1.6 billion yuan to Ruyi Pictures to see how Tianshen Entertainment can make investment in film and television

On the list of investors in the hit online drama "Remains of Sin", there is a slightly unfamiliar name-Tianshen Entertainment. What is little-known is that the IP of "Remains Sin" was bought by Zhu Ye, chairman of Tianshen Entertainment, three years ago. In the end, Zhu Ye found Cao Huayi, the boss of Xinli Media, to complete the filming of "Remains of Sin". No one expected that his first film and television project would become a "hit".

Original title: The big shot behind "Remains of Sin", who bought Ruyi Pictures with 1.6 billion yuan, led the investment in Microfilm, and acquired Herun. Who is he?

On the list of investors in the hit online drama "Remains of Sin", there is a slightly unfamiliar name-Tianshen Entertainment.

What is little-known is that the IP of "Yu Sin" was bought by Zhu Ye, chairman of Tianshen Entertainment, three years ago. Before "Yu Sin", Zhu Ye was more widely known as a "disciple of Buffett". In 2015, he took a lunch with Buffett, the stock god, for a "sky-high price" of US$2.34 million.

In the end, Zhu Ye found Cao Huayi, the boss of Xinli Media, to complete the filming of "Remains of Sin". No one expected that his first film and television project would become a "hit". Such "legendary stories" have appeared almost one after another in the short development history of Tianshen Entertainment:

for example, he once made Guangguang's Wang Changtian earn billions of yuan-as early as 2012, Guangguang invested 125 million yuan and won a 12.5% stake in Tianshen (at that time, Tianshen was just a web game company). In 2014, Tianshen successfully went public through a backdoor approach. In less than three years, the market value of Tianshen Entertainment has reached nearly 24 billion yuan, which not only made Wang Changtian a fortune, but also became a "player" that cannot be ignored in the current film and television industry:

he once bought Ruyi Pictures 49% of the equity, and sold it less than a year later, making a net profit of 300 million yuan;

he once led the investment in the C+ round of the Microfilm Era, with 400 million yuan being exchanged for 3.43% of the equity;

he also almost wholly acquired the film and television implant company Herun Media, and many popular targets also include Tianshen Entertainment.

Recently, Tianshen Entertainment has also frequently rumored "scandals" with a top domestic TV series production team.

So, who is Zhu Ye and why is he so lucky? Where will his Tianshen Entertainment go?

1 "Kerming can continuously tell you about movies for two or three hours, and he is completely tireless."

In the eyes of many people in the circle, Zhu Ye is good at capital operations and walks the world as a "capital player." A dialogue in early July gave us some new understanding of Zhu Ye.

In the office of Tianshen Entertainment in Beijing, the 34-year-old Beijingman smoked a cigar, and a cartoon of him and Buffett hung on the opposite wall.

This capitalist has a lot of experience in novels and scripts. "I have always been an Internet culture enthusiast and have many friends in the Internet culture circle. The copyright of the novel "Remains of Sin" was purchased by me two or three years ago, and it was recommended by an editor at Qidian at that time. "Inception" and "Interstellar", I have read all these scripts, and I really think they are great."

In fact, when he bought "Remains of Sin", Zhu Ye had no experience in the film and television industry.

From the game circle to the film and television circle, Tianshen Entertainment takes the approach to use investment companies as a stepping stone to accumulate industry resources.

In November 2015, Tianshen Entertainment's M & A fund purchased 49% of the copyright of Ruyi Pictures for 1.326 billion yuan. The latter has produced hit works such as "The Pretender","Nirvana in Fire" and "To Youth".

"We are very grateful to Ruyi Pictures for its acquisition. It was Xiao Ke (Ke Liming) who led me into the industry." Zhu Ye commented on Ruyi Pictures, the first film and television company he invested in: "After investing in Ruyi Pictures, we met more and more big shots in the industry."

He commented on Kerming-he was an extremely dedicated person and had enough love for movies to even want to do it for a lifetime.

"When I was with Limin, I could never beat him when talking about movies, and he was the kind of person who could talk to you continuously for two or three hours and was completely indefatigable. Investing, of course, is to invest in such people." Zhu Ye said.

Immediately afterwards, Tianshen Entertainment spent 400 million yuan in April this year to become the leading investor in the C+ round of financing in the lithography era, accounting for 3.43% of the shares. In previous rounds of financing, almost all investors in the lithography era were VCs or industrial funds. With the addition of Tianshen Entertainment, it became the first listed company among shareholders in the lithography era.

"We are equivalent to making a pricing." Zhu Ye said that the post-investment valuation in the micro-film era was 11.661 billion yuan. After that, Taopiao and Cat Eye completed a new round of capital operations respectively, and the valuations were used as a reference.

Not only that, after Tianshen Entertainment, domestic film and television listed companies have become increasingly keen on investing in ticketing platforms. For example, Bona Films and Huace Films have invested in ticketing, and Enlight Media even directly acquired a controlling stake in Cat's Eye.

"When comparing lithography, Taobao and glutinous rice, I feel that I prefer lithography because I know Tencent better and because I recognize Lin Ning. Moreover, lithography acquired Guevara and gained a particularly good product team. I happen to be a loyal user of Guevara."

In June this year, Tianshen Entertainment once again deployed itself in the film and television industry, almost wholly acquiring Herun Media, the company ranked at the forefront in the field of film and television implants.

Wang Yifei, general manager of Herun Media, has been engaged in product placement for nearly ten years. He told Entertainment Capital,"We have been in contact with President Zhu for a long time and will also recommend some good companies in the industry to Tianshen. Last time, we introduced a friend. I didn't expect President Zhu to vote for it in a few days."

"We started contacting Tianshen last year. At that time, President Zhu often asked for our opinions. The introduction of this company has no synergy to me, and how to create synergy." Wang Yifei said. After half a year of contact, Herun Media finally sold 96.3% of its shares for 740 million yuan.

2 Equity investment "ends" and project investment "begins"?

Zhu Ye is regarded as a "follower of Buffett," but he said that unlike Buffett's concept of value investing, he prefers "trend investing."

"Just enter at the bottom of the industry's rising curve. If you are in the middle of the curve, you can try to get in as much as possible, and try not to touch or withdraw when you are at a high level." Zhu Ye said.

He refused to explain too much about the recent resale of Ruyi Pictures for 1.617 billion yuan. But his concept of "trend investing" may be an annotation behind this deal. At least, after holding Ruyi Pictures for less than a year, Tianshen's M & A fund has made a net profit of 300 million yuan.

Zhu Ye admitted to reporters that he will not easily invest in more film and television companies in the future. The reason is that the valuation of the entire film and television industry is now at a high point, and the mergers and acquisitions of film and television companies by listed companies are relatively difficult. Using the view he expressed in a previous forum, that is,"the entrance of capital is getting higher and higher, while exports are getting lower and lower."

"I think I have a talent for investing." Zhu Ye said: "Tianshen Entertainment has invested less than 3 million yuan to its current market value of 24 billion yuan. Moreover, I have never sold out equity in Tianshen Entertainment, and my daily expenses are realized through other investment cases." He casually listed the investment cases of several game companies, with single returns ranging from several million to tens of millions.

After experiencing investment cases from many film and television industry companies such as Ruyi Pictures, Microfilm Times, and Herun Media, Zhu Ye decided to produce content personally.

But he said: "I have no intention of making money from my work."

In Zhu Ye's plan, popular film and television works can help Tianshen Entertainment expand its popularity. Through this popularity, it can "feed back" companies such as finance and education that can develop for a long time. The benefits of these industries may be greater and more sustainable.

"Our rhythm is one TV series a year and one big movie in two or three years. As long as we produce good works, it will be fine." Zhu Ye said.

Today, Tianshen Entertainment has established Tianshen Pictures, which will successively develop the big movies "Jiang Ye","Black Pot" and "Yu Sin", the online drama "Yu Sin 2", the original IP "Ao Jian", etc.

He also said in the interview that he is investing in a film and television production company, hoping to help Tianshen Entertainment produce high-quality content with exquisite details in the future, and that he can have people like Hou Hongliang who can do things carefully and patiently.

From 3 million to 24 billion yuan, backdoor listing has become a critical step.

Looking at Tenshen Entertainment's performance in recent years, it seems to be a mysterious force breaking into the film and television industry. Where did Zhu Ye come from? Why is Tianshen Entertainment so rich?

At that time, Zhu Ye started from 3 million yuan in capital and completed the original accumulation of capital through a hit game called "Ao Jian". "Ao Jian" is an ARPG martial arts web game developed by Tianshen. The monthly sales of "Ao Jian 2" once exceeded 30 million yuan.

In 2012, Enlight Media and its subsidiary Enlight Pictures invested a total of 125 million yuan in Tianshen Entertainment, taking a 12.5% stake. This company then used the shell Kemian Wood to enter the capital market, completing a key leap in the company's development history.

"Backdoor listing is an important step in the development of our company, and we have a platform with greater capital." In his conversation with Entertainment Das Kapital, Zhu Ye admitted the importance of listing to Tianshen Entertainment. It is with this platform that Tianshen Entertainment can start from a page game "Ao Jian" and develop to a market scale of nearly 24 billion yuan today.

"The life cycle of web games is relatively short. A product can become a listed company or decline rapidly, especially under the impact of mobile games." A person familiar with Tenshen Entertainment told reporters that Tenshen Entertainment is also facing this problem. Since "Ao Jian", it has suffered from the trouble of recreating the second hit and the painful period of mobile games. The capital operation of the listing has "saved" it.

Since starting from backdoor borrowing in 2014, Tianshen Entertainment has continued to invest in foreign mergers and acquisitions and expand its industrial chain. Through high-quality mobile game R & D, distribution companies, and asset injection from Internet advertising companies, problems such as game products, operations, and monetization have been solved, avoiding the "short-lived" cycle of web game companies.

Today, Enlight Media is still a shareholder of Tianshen Entertainment. Zhu Ye said: "President Nagata often communicates with us and recommends some good companies to us, such as Deng Chao's Orange Image." In his view, the fact that he has not had a synergy with light is that he has not figured out how to make movies and is accumulating resources step by step.

In fact, the layout of the film and television field is only a small part of Tianshen Entertainment's overall layout. Online education, finance and other fields have become new areas that Zhu Ye is hunting for.

"Now, on the one hand, we want to make products well, and on the other hand, we also want to make action in the capital market." Zhu Ye, founder of Tianshen Entertainment, told reporters in his office that he would occasionally glance at the cartoon with Buffett hanging on the opposite wall.

"This was given to me after dinner." This year, the same lunch was auctioned for US$3.45 million. Later, Zhu Ye posted to his circle of friends: "Suddenly I feel like I have made a net profit of US$1.1 million."

"Buffett's success is actually essentially investing in the United States." Zhu Ye said that Tianshen also hopes to invest in industries with longer-term development and be friends of time.

"Film and television investment imports are high, but exports are low."

Reporter: Tenjin used to invest in companies. What kind of consideration is it for starting to invest in projects now?

Zhu Ye: From our perspective, an investment company is actually a stepping stone. The core is that you must have the ability to select materials, produce, and publish, and do it yourself after obtaining resources through investment.

Reporter: Can you briefly talk about your impression of Wang Changtian?

Zhu Ye: Brother Nagata is very diligent and hardworking, because I wouldn't work as hard as he when I was at his age. Then he is very focused in their field. These are his very strong advantages.

Reporter: The next step is to let you invest in a film and television company. What kind of company would you choose?

Zhu Ye: In fact, we have already invested in one of the leading film and television production companies, but there is no announcement now. We think this is the best production team in the country.

In the future, we want to produce high-quality works. We hope to have a stable and professional team. Although "Remains of Sin" is a good job, it is actually a trick and cannot withstand particularly strong scrutiny in terms of details. We need a professional team that can study the details.

Reporter: Then what do you think of the commercial value of this production team?

Zhu Ye: All our thinking in the film and television industry is not entirely about its commercial value. The core thinking is how we can present the best content to our users and viewers. This is our primary thinking. We are in this The first important principle in the field.

Reporter: What do you think about the fact that many companies invest in studios now?

Zhu Ye: Of course, you can invest if you have the opportunity. The core depends on the price. If I can train new people as an agency, I think it will be very valuable.

But if it is already particularly expensive, it is unnecessary and the risk is high. What if something goes wrong one day? Then your return is actually low, because it is not cheap when you invest. The entrance is high and the exit is low, so why bother?

Editor: yvette