On the evening of September 16, Huayi Brothers Media Group Co., Ltd. (Huayi Brothers) announced that Huace Culture planned to invest approximately 836 million yuan to take over Huayi Brothers. After the restructuring is complete, Huace Culture will become the controlling shareholder of Huayi Brothers. This move indicates a change in ownership for Huayi Brothers.
Huayi Brothers issued a notice on the evening of the 16th regarding the confirmation of the industrial investor and the signing of the “Restructuring Investment Agreement” and the “Supplementary Agreement to the Restructuring Investment Agreement.” The announcement stated, “On September 16, 2026, the board of directors approved the resolution related to the signing with the industrial investor, confirming Huace Culture as the pre-restructuring industrial investor of the company and signing the “Restructuring Investment Agreement” and “Supplementary Agreement to the Restructuring Investment Agreement” with Huace Culture. The company, the provisional administrator, and the industrial investor Huace Culture have officially signed the “Restructuring Investment Agreement” and “Supplementary Agreement.”
The announcement also mentioned that Huace Culture plans to invest approximately 836 million yuan, holding about 17% of the shares after the restructuring is completed, becoming the controlling shareholder of Huayi Brothers, and gaining control of the company. However, there is a specific provision in the restructuring plan that the core film business sector of Huayi will remain unchanged. After the restructuring, Huayi Brothers will still retain 100% ownership of Huayi Pictures, safeguarding its core business.
The announcement stated that all parties aim to complete the entire restructuring process by December 31 of this year.
Regarding this restructuring, on September 17, the Tita Media App, a subsidiary of Beijing Lingdong Xincheng Information Technology Co., Ltd., expressed that the deteriorating operating conditions and tense debt pressures had pushed Huayi Brothers to the brink of survival. The injection of this capital by Huace Culture is seen as a lifesaver for Huayi Brothers, providing much-needed breathing space amidst the debt crisis faced by ST Huayi.
According to the semi-annual report released by Huayi Brothers earlier this year, revenues in the first half of 2026 were 85.45 million yuan, a 44% decrease from the same period last year, with a net loss of 36.39 million yuan, and an adjusted net loss of 40.23 million yuan. Moreover, the net cash flow from operating activities in the first half of the year was a negative 18.69 million yuan, indicating a continued depletion of the company’s cash flow.
In April of this year, creditor Beijing Tairui Feike officially applied to Jinhua Intermediate People’s Court for pre-restructuring of Huayi Brothers due to an overdue debt of 11.4 million yuan. On April 30, Huayi Brothers’ stock was subject to additional risk warnings, and the securities abbreviation was changed to ST Huayi.
Against the backdrop of Huayi Brothers’ continued decline in operations, many major shareholders are continuously reducing their holdings in the company. According to a report by Lei Di, under Beijing Hongshang Investment Consulting Co., on September 5, over the past six months, the shareholding proportion of Huayi Brothers held by Jack Ma had decreased by 1 percentage point, Alibaba’s investment proportion had decreased by 0.81 percentage points, and Tencent had exited the top ten shareholders list. This indicates that mainstream funds are moving away from Huayi Brothers.
Simultaneously, the shareholding proportions of Huayi Brothers’ founders, Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei, are also decreasing. Wang Zhongjun’s shareholding proportion decreased by 5.88 percentage points, and Wang Zhonglei’s proportion decreased by 0.4 percentage points. The core reason for the decrease in Wang Zhongjun’s shareholding is the company’s ongoing struggles over the past few years, burdened by debt, leading to continuous auctions of Wang Zhongjun’s shares.
Huayi Brothers Media Group Co., Ltd. was founded on November 19, 2004, with headquarters in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The founders are Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei, with Wang Zhongjun serving as the chairman and legal representative. The company primarily engages in the production, distribution, and derivative business of films and TV dramas. In 2009, the company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming the “first stock in the film and television industry” in A shares.
As of the close of trading on September 17, Huayi Brothers’ stock price was reported at 1.79 yuan per share, a decrease of 10.05%, with a market value of 5.466 billion yuan.