Bruno Wu and Thomas Middelhoff first met on a chilly night on a boat on the Yangtze River in early 2002. A band played as the two men ate, and each ordered a cigar as they discussed the opportunities China might hold if they could pool their resources and expertise.
At the time, Mr Wu’s domestic publishing and television group was growing fast and he owned more than a quarter of Sina.com, the Chinese web portal. Mr Middelhoff was running Bertelsmann, with ambitions to transform the German group through digital deals and international expansion.
They agreed to combine their media assets in China, increase the stake in Sina.com and invest in two other Chinese internet companies. The plan was cut short months later, however, by Mr Middelhoff’s abrupt exit from Bertelsmann, where the controlling Mohn family had soured on his plans to take the company public.
“If we had done that deal . . . the internet stocks [alone] would have made us $12bn-$15bn today,” says Mr Wu, sitting beside Mr Middelhoff in a New York hotel. Now they are trying again.
China’s media landscape has changed dramatically in 11 years, particularly when it comes to mobile and social media penetration in its largest cities. Another difference, Mr Middelhoff adds, is that he is no longer acting for somebody else’s family company: “Now it’s about our value, our wealth, what we are building out of it.”
He describes the immediate strategy for the two men’s new venture, BT Capital, as “CIA: China, internet and alternative assets.”
At the core will be film and TV businesses amassed by Mr Wu and his wife, Yang Lan, which have expanded through a series of joint ventures announced in the last two years. “We already control Rmb17m worth of film financing funds,” he notes.
His Seven Stars Media Group has struck co-production deals for English-language action films with the producer of Iron Man, the director of Fast & Furious 6 and the French producer of Grace of Monaco.
The production pipeline has a strong Chinese flavour, including five new Chinese superhero franchises, a film called Rise of the Terracotta Warriors and a TV series based on material written by Bruce Lee, the late Chinese-American martial arts actor.
“It’s a great time for new native narrative myths and stories” in China, says Miles Gilburne, Mr Middelhoff’s partner in a digital education company called ePals. “If you’re able to pulse the ethos of China right now and build those fundamental narratives that really resonate at the consumer level, those are the franchises that last for ever,” he says. After decades of transformative growth, he adds: “it’s the first time that China has the ability to breathe, step back and build [new] narratives.”
Mr Wu’s international ambitions are clear. He and two partners looked last year at merging and acquiring Miramax and Summit Entertainment, the company behind the Twilight films.
The breathless pace of his dealmaking and the record of international investors losing their shirts in the US film business has prompted some to question his plans, however. Deadline.com, a Hollywood news site, wrote last month that there had been “a lot of scepticism about his complex network of companies”.
Mr Wu and Mr Middelhoff emphasise their financial discipline and their expertise in China, a complex but increasingly important market for western content.
Regulations, censorship and piracy in China have frustrated global media groups for years, but trade between Hollywood and Beijing is growing. Chinese box office revenues have risen at an average 34 per cent a year to hit $2.7 billion last year, according to data released this month.
Mr Wu says he believes China’s quota system, which caps the number of foreign films that can be released each year, will loosen up in time. “Things are step by step moving forward, very much influenced and affected by the Chinese consumer, who wants content,” Mr Middelhoff adds.
Both men remain confident in media’s prospects in China even as warnings mount about the sustainability of the country’s economic model.
“Having [double-digit] GDP growth for 30 years is like you’ve been running a marathon at a 400-metre relay speed for 30 years,” says Mr Wu: “Sometimes, if the body runs much faster than the soul it has to slow down for the soul to catch up.”
Source: https://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7f13eae0-f1f3-11e2-8e04-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ZkRQWJAV
Foreign Talent Agency – Provides Foreign Models, Actors, Host, Dancers and A&R Talent in China.外国人才中介机构 – 提供外籍模特，演员，主持人，舞蹈家和A＆R在中国的人才