FountainVest, Focus Media launch $400m China sport fund

Shenzhen-listed Focus Media has agreed to invest up to $200 million in the fund - known as Focus Media FountainVest Sports JV - for a 50% stake, a filing said. The vehicle will invest in high-quality sport-related businesses in China and overseas. Its core purpose is to consolidate Focus Media's market position by expanding into the sport business value chain.

Focus Media was taken-private in 2012 by a PE and management-led consortium, which included FountainVest, at a valuation of $3.5 billion. Last May, Shenzhen-listed Jiangsu Hongda New Material said it would acquire the firm for RMB45.7 billion ($7.37 billion). One month before the transaction was announced, a group of Focus Media's offshore shareholders made partial exits to 36 domestic institutional investors at a valuation of RMB45 billion.

Late last year, after the Hongda New Material chairman resigned following a probe by authorities, Focus Media found another shell company - Hedy Holding - and then completed its re-listing.

Founded in 2003, Focus Media operates an advertising network in various Chinese urban locations. The company uses audiovisual television displays that are placed primarily in high-traffic areas of commercial office buildings such as in lobbies and near elevators, as well as in large retail chain stores and other venues.

In 2015, Focus Media posted revenue of RMB8.6 billion, an increase of 15% from RMB7.5 billion the previous year. Net income came to RMB3.4 billion, compared to RMB2.4 billion in 2014.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Fundraising
• Media
• China
• Media
• Fountainvest Partners