TV producer pins hopes on appetite for intrigue
A television production company owned by a popular romance novelist expects earnings to climb 33 per cent to $48 million this year as mainland viewers clamour for tales about women climbing the social ladder, financial intrigue and sex.
Qin Jia Yuan Media (QJY), owned by Anita Leung Fung-yee and her legislator husband Philip Wong Yu-hong, hopes to raise between $100 million and $150 million in a main-board listing expected early next month.
Ms Leung is the author of more than 100 books, which she claims have sold more than 10 million copies.
Turnover at QJY last year was $56 million and is expected to rise to $81 million this year, according to a recent research report by sponsor DBS Vickers Securities.
In October, Aegis Group, the world's fifth-largest media group, bought 25 per cent of QJY, giving the British marketing firm access to a lucrative mainland television market not yet fully open to foreign investors.
Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
'QJY's alliance with Aegis creates substantial synergistic effects,' DBS said. 'QJY is poised to enter another phase of strong growth with the international expertise of Aegis.'
DBS said Aegis could help QJY distribute content to overseas markets. In addition, the British firm might be able to assist in the sourcing of future investment.
Between February and last month, the market plunged, forcing several companies to delay or reduce the size of their offers.
'The H-share index is up over 20 per cent in the last three weeks which indicates confidence is returning. In addition, the success of Mengniu Dairy's transaction provides evidence that investors are again looking to put cash to work in new issues,' said Danny Palmer, co-head of global capital markets for Morgan Stanley in Asia-Pacific.
Mengniu Dairy priced its IPO at the top end of the range, equal to 19 times this year's earnings.
Having lowered the indicative price at least once during pre-marketing, improving sentiment allowed the company to lift the price range to between $3.125 and $3.925 from $2.69 to $3.72 on the eve of the launch of the retail tranche.
Even so, retail investors subscribed for 206 times the shares available, resulting in a reallocation from the institutional tranche which boosted the retail portion to 50 per cent of the total offer from an initial 10 per cent. The institutional tranche was more than 20 times covered before the clawback, with Asian investors taking up about 40 per cent, sources said.
The shares will start trading on the main board on Thursday.
