Chinese actress Zhao Wei, husband buy stake in Alibaba films
HONG KONG — Chinese actress Zhao Wei and her husband bought a S$536 million stake in Alibaba Pictures Group, the movie unit of billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding.
Employees stand on a logo of Alibaba during a media tour organised by government officials at its headquarters on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province on June 20, 2012. Photo: Reuters
HONG KONG — Chinese actress Zhao Wei and her husband bought a S$536 million stake in Alibaba Pictures Group, the movie unit of billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding.
Gold Ocean Media, a company controlled by Ms Zhao’s husband, Huang Youlong, purchased a 9.2 per cent stake in the filmmaker last month, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing dated Jan 23. The company bought 1.93 billion shares of Alibaba Pictures at an average of HK$1.60 (S$0.28) each, for a total of HK$3.09 billion (S$536 million).
“Ma Yun and Zhao Wei are pretty close,” Analyst Li Yujie at RHB Research Institute in Hong Kong said, using Mr Ma’s Chinese name. “Ma hasn’t had much experience in the movie business before so he would need help from people in the industry.”
Ms Zhao, whose acting credits include Shaolin Soccer and John Woo’s Red Cliff series, is also a pop singer and film director. Ms Zhao has posted photos of herself and Mr Ma painting together, and she thanked Mr Ma for donating to her charity for disadvantaged children, according to her official account on Weibo.
Alibaba bought an US$800 million (S$1.075 billion) stake in the Chinese film company last year before the e-commerce giant’s record initial public offering, as part of Ma’s quest to build a portfolio of movies and TV programming. The studio said yesterday (Jan 26) it expects to report a loss of as much as HK$600 million for the 2014 fiscal year due to production delays, advertising-sales declines and asset-impairment provisions.
Alibaba Pictures has blamed misstated tax payments and other accounting on lax internal controls by the company’s previous management team, raising questions about Alibaba’s due diligence before the deal.
Shares of the film unit rose 6.4 per cent to HK$1.67 as of 10.30am in Hong Kong trading today. The stock has gained 20 per cent this year, compared with a 5 per cent increase in the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index.
A spokeswoman for Alibaba Group declined to comment. BLOOMBERG
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