After 10 Months of Shareholding and Losses of 2.3 Billion Yuan, Alibaba to Sell All Stakes in Mango Excellent Media

Mango Excellent Media, a TV shopping and entertainment network headquartered in the city of Changsha in central China’s Hunan Province, announced on Thursday evening that Hangzhou Alibaba Venture Capital plans to transfer 93,647,857 shares, accounting for 5.01% of Mango’s total shares. After the agreement transfer is completed, Hangzhou Alibaba Venture Capital will no longer hold shares in the company.

Hangzhou Alibaba Venture Capital applied for exemption from fulfilling the commitments related to share locking. It is reported that the lock-up period for Hangzhou Alibaba Venture Capital holding the company’s shares will end on December 26. The firm plans to hold a shareholders’ meeting according to procedures to review relevant proposals.

According to public data, Alibaba invested 66.23 yuan ($10.25) per share in December 2020, with a total transfer price of about 6.2 billion yuan ($949.50 million), and became Mango’s second largest shareholder.

Currently, Hangzhou Alibaba Venture Capital has a floating loss of 37.6% per share, with a total floating loss of about 2.334 billion yuan, according to the closing price of Mango Excellent Media at 41.31 yuan per share.

Mango Excellent Media is related to Happigo Home Shopping, which was listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2015, then becoming a TV shopping channel launched by state-owned Hunan Television on March 17, 2006. In 2018, Hunan Television merged Happigo with MangoFun, EE-Media, Mango Studios and Mango Entertainment as a whole. The newly listed company was renamed Mango Excellent Media.

On the evening of August 17, Mango Excellent Media released its semi-annual performance report for 2021. The data show that the company achieved operating income of 7.853 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 36.02%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 1.451 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.52%.

Recently, the Chinese entertainment industry is in a storm. In August this year, National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) ordered to restrict idol cultivation programs. On September 2, the organ issued another document, demanding that radio and television organizations and network audio-visual platforms should not broadcast idol-promoting programs, and the statement was upgraded from “restricting” to “stopping” of the broadcasting.

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Mango Excellent Media, backed by Hunan Television, has always emphasized its own media attributes and has the advantage of lower content cost. Senior analyst Ma Shicong said in an interview with ChinaTimes that the advantage of Mango Excellent Media lies in the improvement of efficiency through integration of resources, which is a key method for the firm to gain profits.

According to the analysis of some insiders, considering the current market, the transferee of this stock transfer might be a state-owned entity with strategic long-term shareholding. Furthermore, this agreement transfer is not a reduction in the secondary market, so as to not have an impact on the company’s current stock price.

As of the close of trading on September 23, Mango Excellent Media’s share price finished down 0.24%.