Gehua to Launch JV to Operate DTV Channels
China Securities Journal, 12/05/08
Chinese digital cable TV operator Beijing Gehua CATV Network (600037.SH) plans to invest RMB 20 mln to establish a new company with Shanghai Longyu Investment and Shenzhen Daohong Venture Capital Management that will operate and invest in digital television channels. With a share of 40% in the new company, Gehua will be the largest shareholder.
Once established, the new company will cooperate with channel operators in the areas of channel positioning, program planning, and the design of business models for digital channels. The new company will use a market-oriented approach to attract high-quality program production staff for the self-production of core programming content. At the same time it will outsource and enter agreements to obtain high-quality programming from other content suppliers.
Gehua has also announced that it plans to sell a 7.5% stake in Shenzhen-based DTV set-top box middleware provider iPanel back to iPanel for a price of RMB 63 mln. Gehua, which currently owns approximately 15% of iPanel, stated the move was part of a shareholder restructuring at iPanel in preparation for iPanel's IPO.
Keywords: Daohong Venture Capital Management Longyu Investment divest 600037.SH cable TV content DTV Gehua investment iPanel IPO programming set-top box television VC