Orange Sky Entertainment Group becomes the largest shareholder of Golden Harvest Entertainment
Sources：Orange Sky Date：2007-11-08
October 31, 2007, Orange Sky Entertainment Group has reached an agreement with Raymond CHOW, Chairman of Golden Harvest Entertainment. Based on the agreement, Orange Sky Entertainment acquired all shares and convertible bonds that Mr. Raymond CHOW and his daughter held in Golden Harvest Group (24.78% of the total) for a price of approximately 200 million HKD. The breakthrough deal makes Orange Sky Entertainment Group the largest single shareholder of this legendary Chinese production house which made such superstars as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, in place of the previous largest shareholder of Li Jiacheng (Li Ka- Shing). This acquisition also marks the unprecedented move among companies in mainland China to become a principal shareholder of a filmmaking company listed in Hong Kong. According to industry analysts, this acquisition will become a watershed of strategic movement for the Asian film industry setup from graphical location to new creative standards. Industry insiders speculate it is the transparent and sound financial conditions, creative teams with international backgrounds and the vigorously energetic management style of Orange Sky Entertainment that play a decisive role in this acquisition.
Fresh blood flows into legendary Asian filmmaker
According to an announcement released by Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Raymond CHOW and his daughter have accepted the offer from Orange Sky Entertainment to acquire 24.78% of shares of Golden Harvest Group. After completion of acquisition of these shares, the chairman of board of directors of Golden Harvest will be Wu Kebo, President of Orange Sky Entertainment Group, who will be accompanied by five directors from Orange Sky Entertainment to the board.
Orange Sky Entertainment Group’s spokesperson noted that Golden Harvest is a legendary Chinese filmmaker, and although Chengtian is still a young entertainment business with great prospects, it is hoped that the new approach of Chengtian will be incorporated into the gigantic platform of Golden Harvest to continue the legendary success in the new era of Chinese film making ahead of us.
“Golden Harvest has been around in Hong Kong’s show biz for over thirty years as a leading figure in Hong Kong’s film industry. Orange Sky Entertainment feels it a great pleasure to become a principal shareholder of Golden Harvest, which will surely help Orange Sky Entertainment to reach another climax with creativity and efforts of our group and valuable experiences and tremendous influence that Golden Harvest has on Asian market. In the foreseeable future, Orange Sky Entertainment Group expects to make not fewer than 20 films per year with the help of the experiences and capabilities of Golden Harvest. ’ Said Wu Kebo, Chairman of Orange Sky Entertainment Group.
It is said that Chengtian will push forward innovative filmmaking, creative distribution and cinema development activities across the board after this acquisition in an attempt to explore the further potential for production and distribution of Chinese films in Asia and throughout the world.
As a legendary Chinese filmmaker, Golden Harvest has always been a dreamland for a large number of businesses interested in the entertainment industry. The question of whom will Raymond CHOW, the founder of Golden Harvest, pass his relay baton to has always been an unsettled question in the Chinese film industry until this acquisition was finally revealed. According to industry insiders, this audacious move was made in strict confidentiality, within a very short negotiation process.
Golden Harvest’s glorious history
Golden Harvest was founded jointly by Raymond CHOW, He Guanchang （ Leonard HO Koon-Cheung） and Liang Feng to deal with filmmaking financing, distribution, cinema operations and film printing business. It is one of the most influential Chinese filmmakers ; co-branded with Shao’s Film Studio it acts as one of the two legends in Hong Kong’s film industry.
Golden Harvest has financed and produced over 600 films and made two world class superstars out of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan amongst an army of entertainment stars like Xu Guanwen. Golden Harvest has not only brought Chinese Kongfu movies into every corner of the world but also successfully created Hong Kong style comedies and Kongfu comedy films. Golden Harvest’s films will undoubtedly continue their unparalleled run of smash hit box office records, like the Big Boss, Way of the Dragon and Fists of Fury starring Bruce Lee and Police Story, Rumble In The Bronx and The Accidental Spy starring Jackie Chan.
Golden Harvest is also the first Asian filmmaker to make its way into Hollywood. The combination of hit comedy Cannonball Run of the 1980’s starring Jackie Chan (and an assortment of Hollywood stars) and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon movies of the 1990’s set up a historic record in the box office of the then American independent film scene. In recent years, to meet the changing market demands, Golden Harvest has been focusing on filmmaking financing and distribution activities, responsible for financing over 40 films including Tau man ji D, New Police Story and Rob-B-Hood. Film distribution is a key element of Golden Harvest’s business portfolio and Golden Harvest holds a significant place in Hong Kong’s Chinese film distribution market through its Jiale chain of cinemas, with about 140 globally released films in its film library.
Furthermore, Golden Harvest is now a leading cinema operator in Asia, running an Asia-wide cinema network consisting of 33 cineplex’s and 260 projection halls as of June 30, 2007. In recent years, Golden Harvest has been expanding its cinema operations into mainland China and Taiwan, thereby becoming the largest chained cinema operator in Taiwan and Singapore. In January 2005 Golden Harvest opened its first flagship Cineplex of mainland China in Shenzhen, which included six movie theaters at the first phase, with an additional four or five movie theaters to be built in 2008.
Orange Sky Entertainment, a dark horse.
Orange Sky became the most powerful entertainment business in the Mainland China within just two years.
Founded in 2004, Orange Sky Entertainment is a group business dealing with the production of films and TV programs, music and musicals, artist management, advertising and new media platform developments. Orange Sky Entertainment became the most powerful entertainment business in mainland China within just two years. The company will release six films by the end of 2007, including I Am Liu Yue Jin, Stick Tiger Chicken and Reverse Meteor. Its huge investment in the films Warlords and Red Cliff have drawn much praised attention from the global film industry. Orange Sky Entertainment maintains agency agreements with over a hundred movie and TV stars and singers in mainland China including Hu Jun, Tong Dawei, Xia Yu, Guo Xiaodong, Mei Ting, Yuan Li, Ma Yili, Xie Xiaodong and Kimi as well as a large group of artists in Hong Kong including Tony Leung, Carina Lau, Rosamund Kwan, Anita Yuen, Julian Cheung and Daniel Chang.
An entertainment company with all employees whose average age was below 30 and routine meetings held in three languages.
If one has to describe the emergence of Orange Sky Entertainment in the show business industry of mainland China with only one word, it has to be unexpected. Only two years old, Orange Sky Entertainment has been an effective user of new business models for entertainment projects and invests wisely drawing together the best young talent - routine meetings of the predominantly twenties staff are held regularly in 3 different languages - from the U.S, France, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan and mainland China in various industrial sectors.
Since its inception, the company has been focusing its attention on China’s show business industry with an unsurpassed international vision. It continues to provide ongoing training, development and management of operators in conventional show business circles with respect to best practices in creation and finance.
Red Cliff, the high-budget Chinese blockbuster to be directed by world famous Chinese director John Woo, has finally touched the ground after many years of preliminary operations when Orange Sky Entertainment joined hands with avex Group of Japan to invest $40 million into the film (shooting began in April 2007).
Orange Sky Entertainment is a pioneer in exploring artist development in mainland China, offering artists a full package of services ranging from movie & TV production, album production to publicity campaigns with a powerful team of behind-the-scenes specialists.
“Mr. Raymond CHOW has made outstanding contributions to Hong Kong’s show biz over the past decades. Under his leadership, Golden Harvest has made a long list of success stories and honorable titles. We are honored to have Mr. Raymond CHOW stay with us as advisor to our group for more constructive inputs into further development of the group.” Said Mr. Wu Kebo.