The Best Entertainment Era

Under the bright lights, Ronan was sitting in the reception room of the Long-Term Credit Bank, his gaze inadvertently swept across the short islander.

This is Takuya Matsubara, vice president of Long-Term Credit Bank in charge of investment business.

After the two parties had a basic understanding and exploration, they quickly turned to the main topic. Matsubara Taku also asked directly: Mr. Anderson, the Pacific Film Foundation and Shahai Entertainment have signed five film investment agreements. Based on the film production experience, I have no doubt that these films have a high chance of success, but according to my understanding, you are the owner of Shahai Entertainment and Pacific Film Foundation, right?

This Matsubara Takuya speaks English fluently and does not have a particularly strong island accent. It is not a problem to communicate directly with guests from the United States.

That's right, the Pacific Film Foundation was originally established by me. Ronan couldn't possibly make a mistake on such a simple question, and said, The purpose of my establishment of this foundation is to raise funds for Shahai Entertainment's film projects , Since the great success of The Bourne Movie, my production company has formulated more shooting plans, among which there are many first-line A-class productions.

He smiled and said, Of course, this can also provide a win-win investment opportunity for funds outside of Hollywood.

Matsubara Takuya was unmoved, and said, Mr. Anderson, you are both Party A and Party B.

Ronan said calmly: You have invested in the Silver Screen Special Film Fund, and you should know that there are traps everywhere in Hollywood. The fund invests in my own film projects, which are more controllable and less risky. This is also a responsibility to the investor. .”

Matsubara Takuya once again questioned: But this is not good for investors! In fact, long-term credit banks have never lacked investment opportunities. Take the film industry as an example, it is more secure for us to invest in local companies.

This kind of words is obviously paving the way for the future conditions. Ronan naturally understood, and said with a faint smile: With your scale, the return and security of investment in the United States are the best.

Matsubara Takumi didn't speak either, as if he didn't agree with Ronan's words.

Luo Nan further said: Since the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the economic environment of the island country has deteriorated rapidly, and it has not recovered until today. Almost all of your country's large investment institutions focus on overseas investment. The island country's economic growth is slow and resources are relatively low. Scarcity, labor costs are getting heavier, and your investment in the country is at a higher risk.”

He spoke slowly, but his voice was very clear: For your side, the huge American market is full of investment opportunities, and all walks of life are profitable, and Hollywood is one of them.

The risks in the film industry are enormous.

Matsubara Takuya said slowly.

Ronan knew very well that the two sides could sit here and talk, and Long-term Credit Bank already had a certain investment interest.

Yes, the film industry is extremely risky. Ronan never denied this: Film investment has high risk characteristics, it is difficult to control the probability of success, and we can only pin our hopes on reducing mistakes as much as possible. Even so , The return on investment of film projects is also limited, behind every dark horse movie, there are a bunch of skinny white horses and princes buried.

Takuya Matsubara looked serious: In this case, once the Long-term Credit Bank cooperates with you, how can the investment return be guaranteed? He said in a reminding way: We have invested in the special film fund for Yinping, and we have enough experience and lessons in this regard.

Hearing this, Ronan was not surprised. After all, the island country is also a country with an extremely developed film and television entertainment industry.

Moreover, before he came to the island country, he was well prepared, and he would never treat the islanders the same way he would deal with the Arabs and Indians.

In order to realize the rapid development of the company, the power of external capital is indispensable, but when dealing with investors from different countries and regions, different strategies must be used, which must be in line with the actual situation of investors.

Ronan had already made a plan and conducted investigation and demonstration. At this time, he said: The Pacific Film Foundation will raise funds from the Long-term Credit Bank in installments in the form of high-yield bonds. This is the business cooperation between the Foundation and the Long-term Credit Bank. , independent of Shahai Entertainment’s film projects, the bond has solidified and stable income.”

Matsubara Taku also touched his chin: Financing that exists independently of the film project.

Ronan further explained: This is one of the investment methods of Hollywood movies. Regardless of whether the Pacific Foundation invests in the success or failure of Shahai Entertainment's movies, the long-term credit bank will get stable returns.

Matsubara also immediately realized that if such a cooperation method can be reached, the investment risk of the long-term credit bank will be minimized.

What about the rate of return? Matsubara Takuya asked directly.

Without any hesitation, Ronan replied: Ten percent. Many film foundations in the United States invest in Hollywood films, and the rate of return reaching 10 percent is considered a relatively high level of profitability. The special screen project that Long-term Credit Bank cooperated with back then Film and television funds, a total of four phases of fundraising, invested in dozens of films, and the film with the highest profit was only 11%

Takuya Matsubara had participated in the cooperation with the Silver Screen Fund back then, and knew what Ronan was telling the truth.

The long-term credit bank invested in two consecutive phases at the beginning, and the overall rate of return was not even 5%.

Takuya Matsubara thought so in his head, but what he said was completely different: The return on investment is too low.

Seeing him say this, Ronan's heart moved. This also means that Matsubara Takuya's attitude is rapidly tilting towards cooperation with the foundation.

Bargaining is actually not a bad thing for business cooperation.

If you want to cooperate, you will bargain.

If you don't even have the intention of cooperating, is there any need to bargain?

Ten percent is indeed not high, but the island country implements low interest rates. The normal commercial loan annual interest rate is generally between 0.9% and 3.5% according to its own situation, and most of them are Around two percent.

Compared with other countries, the interest rate of this loan is low.

Ronan made sufficient preparations and said, Mr. Matsubara, compared to your country's loan interest rate, this rate of return is very high.

Takuya Matsubara could not be easily persuaded, and said: It takes several years for a Hollywood movie to go from project approval to recovery of funds. Let's take the first phase of the Silver Screen Foundation's fundraising as an example. In 1983 Years of funding, covering films whose last release was not completed until the spring of 1986, required to recoup all proceeds in 1991, a total of eight years, which made the use of funds far exceed the return.

Ronan knew very well that what Takuya Matsubara said was very realistic. It would take seven or eight years for a film investment to recover its income. It seemed to generate profits, but what about the time cost? There is also currency depreciation over time, loss of interest, etc.

Three years! Ronan said very confidently: Our cooperation can be carried out in installments. For example, in the first phase, you invest 100 million or 200 million US dollars first. The return of this fund and the income account period are three years. In the third year after signing the contract, the Pacific Fund will pay off all your investment in one lump sum with principal and interest, which can minimize the time cost.”

After several years of operation, Ronan has the confidence to do this.

He can somewhat avoid some detours in the film, shorten the operation process appropriately, and allow a film to be completed within two years from preparation to release, and the remaining year is used to recover funds. The box office boom is enough to return investors' funds.

And such a film can make long-term profits.

There are certain risks in doing so, but any business operation has both opportunities and risks.

Moreover, given the current situation of Relativity Entertainment, if it wants to further develop, it must introduce capital to support it. Ronan needs to unify the voice of the company at this stage to avoid some risks brought about by the six major companies in the next few years. It is impossible to rush to public offering In order to expand its capital or absorb Wall Street capital, it has no choice but to find a way to attract overseas funds that have little interference with Theory of Relativity Entertainment.

Hollywood is imprinted with traces of capital operations everywhere. If Hollywood’s continuous creative ability is compared to the blood on which it depends, then capital is the skeleton that supports the global marketing of Hollywood products.

Well-known companies such as Legendary Films, Relativity Media, and Dune Entertainment, which are familiar in the film and television industry in the previous life, actually have financial industry genes. Hollywood’s film and television industry has also formed a diversified investment and financing model with multiple investment and financing channels and multiple investment and financing models. .

This also ensures that Hollywood movies have sufficient sources of funding.

For example, the well-known Avatar, 20th Century Fox itself invested limited funds, and the two film and television investment companies of the United States, Dune Entertainment and Britain's Smart Media jointly contributed 60% of the production cost and promotional expenses for the film.

Matsubara Tuo also seriously considered, such a rate of return is more cost-effective than commercial loans.

Ronan added: If you invest in other industries, not many can achieve such a high rate of return, and you will also face the risk of investment failure. In the past two years, the economic situation in the United States has not been stable, and the social situation is not very good. Surprises in the economic sphere...

Takuya Matsubara immediately thought of the NASDAQ crash and the 9/11 incident, and couldn't help frowning slightly.

Investing in traditional industries has relatively the least risk, but the return on investment in traditional industries... don't even mention it.

Matsubara Takumi would not let go easily, and said again: The 10% return on investment is too low.

We can continue talking. Ronan said calmly, I believe we can reach a consensus on this cooperation.

Takuya Matsubara said seriously: I also hope to reach a consensus on this cooperation.

This meeting is only to lay the foundation for future negotiations. Ronan and Matsubara Taku also have a preliminary cooperation intention, and the specific negotiations in the future can be handed over to the people below.

For an investment cooperation involving hundreds of millions of dollars, the two parties cannot be too cautious.