Can star shareholders such as Light, Wanda, and Huace help Xitian Films transform smoothly?

it has been half a year since the last wave of small and medium-sized cultural companies listing new third boards. Today, the secondary market, whether A shares or the new third board has entered a relatively cold stage. Yesterday, a collection of Zhang Tianai, Wu Xiubo, Ma Li, Zhang Xianyi, Lin Yongjian and other star artists Xitian film and television, issued a new third board prospectus. This is the first listed company in China with artist brokerage as its main business.

original title: Xi Tian Film and Television sprint new third board, Wu Xiubo holds 2%, Haiqing is out, artist brokers are gradually marginalized by film and television business

it has been half a year since the last wave of small and medium-sized culture companies listed on the new third board. Today, the secondary market, whether A shares or the new third board has entered a relatively cold stage.

yesterday, more than 30 star artists, including Zhang Tianai, Wu Xiubo, Ma Li, Zhang Xianyi, Lin Yongjian, and so on, gathered Xitian movies and TV shows, and released a new third board prospectus. This is the first listed company in China with artist brokerage as its main business.

in this prospectus, we find the following information.

1. Wu Xiubo, as the sponsor of the company, holds 2% of the shares. However, the company's Neihaiqing, Zhang Tianai, Lin Yongjian and other artists who were expected to become star shareholders did not hold shares.

2. In 2015, the company's overall net profit was 17.03 million, but the gross profit margin reached 83%. This is equivalent to the fact that Xitian Movie has almost no cost in the past year. In the first half of this year, the company's gross profit margin is still as high as 53%.

3. In the first half of this year (January-July), Xitian Film and Television had a total of 72 employees and paid only 3.4481 million of the staff expenses. This is equivalent to an average monthly salary of 6841 yuan per employee in the first half of the year.

this listing is not sudden. As early as April this year, Huatze Film and Television, Light Media and other film and television companies have invested in Xi Tian Film and Television. At that time, some media said that Xitian Film and Television was planning to list a new third board. Now it seems that the previous investment can be regarded as Xitian Movie and Television to complete the share reform before listing.

as there are more and more ways of cooperation between film companies and stars, the close binding relationship between star artists and agencies has become loosened. At both ends of the scale, the voice is tilting towards the stars. Fosun, Wanda Film and Television, Light Media, Huatze Film and Television. Xitian Film and Television through the introduction of many strategic shareholders, to the upper reaches of the film and television industry chain transformation.

< strong > more than 30 stars do not own shares, and Haiqing is out < / strong >

Public data show that Xi Tian Film and Television, founded in August 2013, is one of the largest brokerage companies in China. Its core business is artist brokerage and film and television drama investment production, while covering copyright, script creativity, mobile Internet and other areas.

I still remember that Xitian Film and Television was in the limelight at this year's Shanghai Film Festival. At the company's "Happy Night" social party, in addition to Wu Xiubo and other stars, but also invited Ang Lee, Wang Changtian, Guo Guangchang and other industry leaders, and homeopathy set up Xitian Film.

at that time, some media said that if Xitian Film and Television were listed, a number of A-list stars such as Wu Xiubo, Zhang Xiuyi, Lin Yongjian, Wang Qianyuan, Zhang Tianai and Li Guangjie were expected to become star shareholders. However, only Wu Xiubo was found in the prospectus, not Zhang Tianai and Haiqing, who were relatively popular before.

Wu Xiubo holds shares as the sponsor of the company. In April this year, after the company's third industrial and commercial change, Wu Xiubo became a shareholder in Xitian Pictures, with a 2.5% stake, which has now been reduced to 2%.

even Haiqing's name is not seen among the 20 major contracted artists disclosed in the announcement, including Wang Qianyuan and Ma Li. Some industry insiders speculate that Haiqing may have terminated its contract from Xitian Movie and Television.

< strong > in the first half of the year, Wu Xiubo and Zhang Tianai were major income earners, with a gross profit margin of 53% < / strong >

in the first half of this year. Xitian's five major customers are Beijing iqiyi Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhou Youche Information Technology Co., Ltd., Xinyi Mingyi Film and Television Culture Studio, Buer Culture Media, Shanghai Film and Television Global Asia.

among them, "my friend Chen Bailu" is an urban love online drama jointly produced by the company and iqiyi this year, starring Zhang Tianai, Chen Ya'an and Li Zifeng. Iqiyi's purchase accounts for 26.7% of Xitian's film and television revenue, which is mainly the remuneration of artists.

in addition, the procurement of Shenzhou Youxin accounts for 6.58%, which mainly comes from Wu Xiubo's endorsement income for Shenzhou chauffeured cars, while Wu Xiubo's 100% stake in the two cultural media accounts for 3.95%. The fantasy film Jiaozhu Zhuan, a fantasy film co-produced by Shanghai Film Huanya and Shanghai Film Group, starred Zhang Tianai, which made the purchase proportion of Shanghai Film Huanya reach 3.63%.

from this point of view, Xitian's main ways to make money in the first half of this year are Zhang Tianai's film salary and Wu Xiubo's endorsement fee. Moreover, we further found that the two sales contracts of Xitian Film and Television are also related to the two stars.

Xitian Film and Television signed the sales contract of "Wu Zhi Qiankun", which mainly provided planning and creative services for Tianjin Deep Blue Film and Television Media from 2016 to 2017, at a price of 11.025 million; and signed with Bu er Culture Media on the "military Advisor Alliance" planning and creative services, the price is 2.1505 million.

the reporter has consulted entertainment lawyers. In agency contracts, planning creative services is generally another term for actors' pay. And the star of "Wu Zhi Qiankun" happens to be Zhang Tianai.

with the rise of artists such as Zhang Tianai, artist brokers have brought a lot of income to the company. The income of the company's artist brokers was 15.79 million yuan last year, rising to 28.95 million yuan in the first seven months of this year, accounting for 63.75% and 56.39% of operating income, respectively.

according to the prospectus, the gross profit margin of the company in the first half of the year was as high as 53%, of which the gross profit margin of the company's artist brokerage business was as high as 86.53%. In 2015, Xitian's gross profit margin was even as high as 84.48%. The reason why the gross profit margin is so high is mainly because the company's artist brokerage business started in the second half of 2015, when the cost of artist brokerage business was mainly labor costs. in 2015, the labor relations of most of the company's personnel were transferred to the company in the fourth quarter, so the labor cost was lower and the gross profit margin was higher in that year.

but in addition to the index of gross margin, the reporter also found a particularly interesting phenomenon. As we all know, the biggest cost of a company whose main business is artist brokerage is the cost of manpower. On the other hand, Xitian Film and Television does not spend much money on manpower costs.

as of the reporting period, there were 72 employees of Xitian Film and Television, and the total salary of the employees from January to July this year was 3.44 million yuan. In this way, the average monthly salary of employees in the first half of this year is 6841 yuan.

but it needs to be clear that celebrity artists sign brokerage contracts with brokerage companies, not general labor contracts. Therefore, the monthly salary of 6841 yuan in the first half of the year is not the monthly income of stars, or even the monthly income of star agents. According to the brokerage contract, the broker may take a share of the income of the star, or he may earn income from Xitian Movie.

< strong > can star shareholders such as Light, Wanda and Huatze help Xitian Film and Television transform smoothly? < / strong >

of course, compared with other artist agencies, Xitian Pictures' advantages include not only cost control, but also the purchase of film and television IP and the expansion of the whole industry chain. At present, Xitian Film and Television has the right to adapt and cooperate with 19 movies and TV series IP, including "Cao Cao", "murder hanging", "who ate my Wheat" and so on.

this is the inevitable choice for brokerage companies when the cooperation mode between stars and film companies is becoming more and more diversified in recent years. From star shareholders to shell companies that buy stars, and then to set up companies with stars, the binding role of brokers to artists is getting weaker and weaker.

some powerful stars may even force brokers to agree to their demands. The reporter has checked that Xitian Film and Television's control over Wu Xiubo is not strong, and Wu Xiubo can even ask to take his own stomach medicine brand to be implanted into the film and TV series.

because of this, Xitian's artist brokerage business is gradually weakening. In the first half of this year, artist agents accounted for 16.34% of the income, while film and television production accounted for 63.19%, and entertainment marketing accounted for 20.47% of the income. It is clear that among the three major businesses, artist brokerage is already the sector with the smallest share of revenue.

in the process of cutting from artist brokers to the upper reaches of the industrial chain, many star institutional shareholders behind Xitian Movie and Television will play a greater synergistic role with the company. In the first half of this year, Light Media and Huatze Film and Television successively bought shares in Xitian Film and Television, joining the ranks of established shareholders such as Fosun and Wanda Film and Television.

earlier, Zhou Banxi, general manager of Xitian Film and Television, said in an interview with reporters: "We want to be the model of overseas CAA in the future. in addition to star brokers, we are still working as screenwriters, directors and other industry-wide talent agents, and sports stars and online celebrity agents will also be involved in the future." And these businesses will be linked with various film and television companies.

Edit: yvette