Alibaba Pictures launches $300m TV, movie fund
Alibaba Pictures, the Chinese internet giant’s Hong Kong-listed film and entertainment unit, has launched a RMB2 billion ($300 million) fund that will make movie and TV-related investments.
Alibaba Pictures will contribute up to RMB500 million to the vehicle - known as Hainan Alibaba Pictures Entertainment Industry Investment Fund - according to a regulatory filing. The rest will be raised by Gopher Asset Management, the private equity arm of Noah Holdings.
Gopher will take responsibility for managing the fund, which has a lifespan of five years, with an option to extend by no more than two years.
Alibaba Pictures was created last year when Alibaba Group bought 60% of Hong Kong-listed ChinaVision for HK$6.24 billion ($804 million) and renamed it. The company is already involved in content production, developing its own pipeline of domestic movies and TV dramas as well as investing in international projects such as the most recent installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
The company raised around HK$12.1 billion through a share placement last year in order to help finance potential acquisitions. It wants to create "an internet-powered integrated platform which spans financing and investment, entertainment content production, promotion and distribution, fan-based economics, and cinema service provision."
In May, CDH Investments' wealth management platform, Ant Financial Services and Sina Corp. led a RMB1.7 billion Series A round of funding for Alibaba Pictures' online movie ticketing platform.
A clutch of Chinese strategic investors, ranging from internet players like Alibaba and Tencent Holdings to conglomerates Dalian Wanda Group and Fosun Group, are acquiring or developing media content with a view to building industry value chains that run all the way from origination to distribution.
Earlier this month, Gopher entered into a near identical arrangement with Perfect World, a movies and video gaming company. Their M&A fund also has a target of RMB2 billion, with Gopher set to raise three quarters of this from third-party investors. Perfect World also launched a vehicle with domestic fund-of-funds Shengjing to invest in a slate of movies produced by US-based Universal Pictures.
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