Alibaba, Tencent raise stakes in Huayi Bros   

华谊兄弟融资36亿发力全产业链 阿里入股腾讯增持

Huayi Brothers Media Corp. (Photo: CNS)

(ECNS) – China's tech giants are eying a bigger slice of the entertainment cake, as Alibaba and Tencent are set to invest 2.8 billion yuan ($455 million) in total to raise their stakes in Huayi Brothers Media Corp., China's leading entertainment company.

Huayi, controlled by e-commerce giant Alibaba and Tencent, which owns popular social media services WeChat and QQ, said in a release Tuesday night that it will issue 145 million shares in a private placement to raise a total of 3.6 billion yuan ($585 million).

Alibaba Venture Capital and Tencent will buy 61.76 million and 51.55 million shares respectively, raising their stakes to 8.08 percent each. Other investors include Ping'an Capital Management and CITIC Securities.

Huayi said in the release that it plans to use 3.1 billion yuan ($504 million) raised for new films and TV programs, and use the rest to repay bank loans.

The alliance with Alibaba will boost Huayi's online distribution channel and strengthen cooperation with Alibaba's financial arm, such as the Yulebao platform which crowdfunds upcoming movies.

Huayi will work with Tencent mainly to develop online games.

The partnership will greatly strengthen Huayi's development in media and Internet, the company said in the release.