Huayu: Starting from Fahrenheit

Chapter 436: Signed Directors and Artists
"Why don't you try to make contact with them?"

After thinking for a long time, Wu Zhuo said.

"Also, remember to have a financial firm assess the company's market value."

After a pause, Wu Zhuo looked at Zheng Jianfeng and said, "I need to see the most complete plan. Also, regarding the listing, the company will definitely need relevant professionals, so you need to pay more attention to this aspect."

"Okay, I will take care of these things as soon as possible."

With Wu Zhuo's consent, Zheng Jianfeng became extremely excited.

Many people think that there is no difference between listed and unlisted companies.

No!

The difference is simply too great.

Put it simply.

If Legendary Pictures weren't publicly listed, Zheng Jianfeng's shares would only generate a small annual dividend, which, while higher than his salary, wouldn't amount to much.

But if it goes public, the situation will be completely different.

Just look at Huayi Brothers' valuation when it went public.

At the time, Huayi Brothers' market capitalization reached 49 billion RMB.

Its market capitalization reached a staggering 119 billion yuan at the close of trading on its first day.

Why have the Wang brothers been so successful in recent years?

How could they not be glamorous? As soon as they go public, the valuation of their shares skyrockets.

The two brothers, whose original net worth was several hundred million, became billionaires overnight.

And Legendary Pictures.

Although Legendary is not as long-established as Huayi Brothers.

However, in recent years, Legendary Pictures has been just as profitable as Huayi Brothers was back then, and even better.

Zheng Jianfeng could foresee that once Legendary went public, its market value would definitely be higher than that of Huayi Brothers back then.

As for the fact that Huayi Brothers had Feng Xiaogang's prestigious reputation when it went public...

That's okay, there are legends too.

The legend also includes Wu Zhuo, an even more influential figure.

The fact that Wu Zhuo joined Sony demonstrates his influence.

After his collaboration with Sony was finalized, Sony's stock price immediately rose by 60%.

He single-handedly boosted the stock price.

Meanwhile, after Wu Zhuo's new album was released and achieved impressive sales, the stock price soared.

The same principle applies to movies.

Wu Zhuo's presence at Legendary Pictures and his absence from Legendary Pictures are two completely different things.

With him around, investors have confidence, and at the same time, major fund companies are more eager to invest.

Furthermore, why would someone frequently contact him, hoping to invest in Legend and help him go public?

Besides the impressive profits reported by Legendary Films in recent years, another reason is Wu Zhuo's involvement.

With him around, the IPO valuation will be high.

At the same time, once the company goes public, Zheng Jianfeng himself can immediately become the director and president of the listed company.

He can also take advantage of the IPO to cash out a portion of his shares into real cash.

He had someone assess the market value of the legendary film in advance, and it was estimated to be no less than 50 billion.

This is the pre-IPO valuation; it may be even higher later.

Even with this valuation, his 15% stake would be worth around 750 million.

7.5 billion!

This would allow him to retire on the spot.

Therefore, Zheng Jianfeng is very proactive about going public.

Not only him, but almost everyone in the company is proactive.

Everyone knows what benefits they will gain if they go public.

Zheng Jianfeng was initially very worried that Wu Zhuo would not be willing to go public.

Because he had mentioned it subtly a few times before, but Wu Zhuo had never responded.

Now that Wu Zhuo has finally nodded, Zheng Jianfeng is overjoyed.

……

Going public is not something that can be done overnight.

This process involves many steps.

For a typical company, it can take several years from preparing for an IPO to actually going public.

However, Legendary Pictures is a rather special case.

Because Zheng Jianfeng had long intended to go public, he began preparing for it two years ago.

This would make the listing process for Legendary much simpler once Wu Zhuo gives his approval.

Both the restructuring and guidance phases can be almost skipped.

Even so, Legendary Pictures' IPO will take several months.

Therefore, after handing over the task, Wu Zhuo did not continue to participate and instead flew directly back to Taiwan.

Same as always, I'm going home for the Chinese New Year.

He did not participate in the Spring Festival Gala this year as he has in previous years.

In fact, Wu Zhuo has already begun to reduce similar activities significantly.

He might participate in the Spring Festival Gala again in the next few years, but that's a matter for the future.

At present, Wu Zhuo is significantly reducing his work in this area.

That's just how people are; once they've earned a certain amount of money, they start to become lazy.

Wu Zhuo is no exception; he now belongs to the category of those who are not short of money.

In addition to maintaining his influence as an international superstar, he now...

The focus of their career has gradually shifted to business.

It could also be said that, at some point, Wu Zhuo's mindset gradually shifted from that of an artist to that of an entertainment capitalist.

Although I don't want to admit it, the dragon-slaying boy did indeed become a dragon himself, and the capitalist he once despised.

Wu Zhuo, who returned to Taiwan for the Lunar New Year, once again had some leisurely free time.

However, this period of time did not last long.

Just after the end of the third year of junior high school, a news story completely shocked the entertainment industry and also broke Wu Zhuo's leisurely days.

The news that Legendary Pictures is going public has been leaked.

This was not revealed by an outsider.

Instead, the company disclosed it voluntarily.

The bigger the commotion, the better if it's going public.

Just like when Huayi Brothers was about to go public, the Wang brothers did everything they could to promote and market it in order to increase its market value.

At the same time, in order to increase market value and provide shareholders with a good financial report, they began to invest in good projects as much as possible.

The reason why Huayi Brothers was so actively involved in the "Fleet of Time" project, even going so far as to negotiate with Wu Zhuo to allow Legendary Pictures to participate in their company's projects, was to have a good financial report before going public.

It is quite different from typical technology companies and industrial companies.

While assets are important for entertainment companies going public, their works are actually even more important.

It's often said that a listed entertainment company's stock price rises or falls due to the success of a particular project, and this isn't entirely untrue.

For entertainment companies, a good work can boost their stock price.

Not just the works themselves.

This applies even to celebrities and directors.

Take Huayi Brothers, for example. Why would Huayi Brothers invest billions in Feng Xiaogang's lousy company?
Is it really because his company is worth so much money?

no.

Huayi Brothers did that entirely to bind Feng Xiaogang to Huayi Brothers.

The Wang brothers were well aware that the reason Huayi Brothers went public, and even the reason its stock price soared after the IPO, was because Huayi Brothers had Feng Xiaogang.

Feng Xiaogang, who has been in the industry for many years and has never failed, has become a signature figure for Huayi Brothers.

With him around, Huayi Brothers' stock price won't collapse.

Conversely, if Feng Xiaogang had left Huayi Brothers immediately after the company went public, Huayi Brothers' stock price would have absolutely collapsed.

This is true for entertainment companies.

The factors that influence a company's market value are no longer the products of tech companies, but rather the people and their work.

You could even say that artists and their works are essentially their products.

It is the most important factor in the rise of stock prices.

Therefore, the listing of entertainment companies usually involves a lot of fanfare.

The bigger the commotion, the more investors will see your company and buy your stock after it goes public.

That's exactly what Legendary Pictures was doing at that time.

While raising funds for its IPO, the company also began to promote its strength to give investors more confidence.

Of course, confidence cannot be built solely on propaganda.

You also need to have results.

On the 4th, Legendary Entertainment not only expressed its confidence in preparing for an IPO, but also released the company's profit report.

At the same time, the company also began to publicly disclose its assets.

Yes, as mentioned earlier, artists are also part of the assets of entertainment companies.

Currently, in the Chinese-speaking world, there is no one with assets as large as Wu Zhuo's.

An international superstar singer, and also a film that has never failed at the box office for many consecutive years.

He can now be considered Jackie Chan.

Therefore, when news broke that Legendary Pictures was preparing to go public, the entire entertainment industry was in an uproar.

For ordinary netizens, the most surprising thing is that Legendary Pictures was actually founded by Wu Zhuo.

Wu Zhuo has never really publicized the fact that he is the owner of Legendary Films.

Some netizens may know this, but many others do not.

So when this news spread, netizens were immediately in an uproar.

"I've watched so many Legendary Pictures movies, and I only just found out that Wu Zhuo is the boss!"

"Wu Zhuo is a born winner! He's a top international singer, an actor who's been in the top five of the national box office for four consecutive years, and now, damn it, even the largest film company in the country is his. He's definitely a big winner."

"Sometimes you have to admire how Wu Zhuo managed to have so much money before he was even thirty."

"This is fate; you have no chance."

"I saw the official article published by Legendary Movies on Weibo."

Legendary Pictures seems to have several films slated for release this year, including "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons," a collaboration between Wu Zhuo and Stephen Chow.

I wonder what role Wu Zhuo plays in it, is he Sun Wukong?

"Didn't you see the official Weibo account for Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons? Wu Zhuo plays Xuanzang, who is also Tang Sanzang."

While the internet was abuzz with news of Legendary Pictures' impending IPO, the press also got involved.

Wu Zhuo, who was enjoying a leisurely life in Taiwan, became the object of intense pursuit by reporters.

"Wu Zhuo, can you tell me about Legendary Pictures' IPO?"

"Where is the listing process for Legendary at now?"

"I heard you're planning a film project in collaboration with Warner Bros. Is this preparation for going public?"

"There are rumors that Wang Baoqiang has several film contracts with Legend. Can you give us more details?"

Wu Jing said you are very supportive of new directors. It is thanks to your support that he has the opportunity to direct again. Besides him, have you invested in other directors?

"According to Legendary's announced projects for this year, Eddie Peng will star in a movie called 'Unbeatable.' Eddie Peng has never had much box office success. Aren't you worried that he'll botch the movie and affect Legendary's IPO?"

Reporters are truly incredibly resourceful.

Wu Zhuo's villa in Taipei has always been very well hidden.

But these guys still managed to find it this time.

As soon as Wu Zhuo's car left the entrance of the residential area, it was surrounded by reporters.

Seeing that the reporters wouldn't leave without asking some questions, Wu Zhuo had no choice but to stop the car and get out to give an interview.

"Legendary Pictures is indeed going public, and we are currently undergoing asset restructuring."

We will reorganize Legendary Films, Legendary Entertainment Agency, and several other companies into Legendary Entertainment Limited.

I cannot disclose specific details about the listing at this time, but I can assure you that we will definitely be able to go public this year.

Then, regarding the project with Warner, we've actually been preparing for this project for a long time.

This is a film about redemption, and also an action-packed shootout. The film is scheduled to begin production after my tour ends in April.

I admire Andy Lau very much; his Asian New Star Director Project has helped many people.

So I personally tried in this area, hoping to help some talented directors.

We at Legendary Entertainment thought Wu Jing was quite good at this, so we arranged for him to direct "Wolf Warrior".

Then, regarding Eddie Peng, he is actually one of my favorite actors. He has always been very serious about filming.

At the same time, I felt that he actually had great potential, so after signing director Dante Lam, we immediately prepared this project for him.

We also invited Hong Kong Film Awards Best Actor Nick Cheung to act alongside him.

Wu Zhuo has a good memory. He heard and remembered all the questions from the reporters, so he answered them all in one breath.

After saying that, he waved his hand, got back into his car, and drove off.

He's different now than before.

He used to be very worried about the media and was always very careful when dealing with them.

He doesn't need to worry about these things too much now.

Now, he is one of the traders.

Among the reporters here, there might be news companies that he owns shares in.

……

After the Spring Festival, a new year begins, and everything is brand new.

Wu Zhuo is still busy with his concert.

From Japan to Europe and America, one after another.

Meanwhile, discussions about Legendary Pictures have remained high in China during this period.

Since announcing its plans to go public, Legend has been making a series of moves.

First, they acquired and integrated all the companies under Legendary Holdings, merging them with Legendary to form a huge company called Legendary Entertainment.

Then, Legendary Entertainment began poaching talent frequently.

First of all, the director.

In addition to Dante Lam officially joining Legendary Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment also reached a cooperation agreement with Tsui Hark, and the two parties signed a contract for three films.

Subsequently, Legendary Entertainment signed Chen Sicheng, who had just made a name for himself in the directing industry with "Beijing Love Story".

Then there's the actors.

The original Legendary Entertainment artists such as Wu Jing, Eddie Peng, and Liu Shishi need no further introduction.

Then, regarding Wang Baoqiang, who officially announced his joining Legendary Entertainment this year after his contract with Huayi Brothers expired.

Following that, Legendary Entertainment signed Yang Mi as a major new signing.

Legendary Entertainment's series of actions have made it the talk of the town in the domestic entertainment industry, making it arguably the number one media mogul of the year.

(End of this chapter)