A painting saved a listed company?! According to the Announcement of Hunan Radio and Television Media Co., Ltd. on the Sale of Artworks (hereinafter referred to as the “Announcement”) released by Shenzhen Stock Exchange on December 15.Xu Beihong’s oil painting “Yugong Moves the Mountain”, whose bottom price was 900 million yuan, was sold by Hunan Radio and TV Station for 2.Purchase for a price of 08.8 billion yuan (including tax). The seller is Hunan Cable Television Network (Group) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hunan Radio and Television Media Co., Ltd. After completing this transaction, Radio and Television Media is expected to avoid the fate of losing money and being ST for two consecutive years.
Why was it taken six months ago?
“Yugong Moves the Mountain” was created in the 1930s and 1940s, and the content of the picture is almost the same as the two giant “Yugong Moves the Mountain” collected by Xu Beihong Memorial Museum. Among them, the huge Chinese painting plate “Yugong Yishan” is widely known because it was included in the People’s Education Press language textbooks as an illustration. According to disclosure, in 2007, Radio and Television Media purchased it for 28 million yuan through an auction organized by Beijing Hanhai Auction Co., Ltd.
On May 21 this year, TV and Radio Media signed the Asset Debt Repayment Agreement with the subsidiary Hunan Cable Group, which agreed to repay the debt owed by the company to Hunan Cable Group with Xu Beihong’s Yugong Yishan. Therefore, the current owner of the painting is Hunan Cable Group. In June, Hunan Cable Group entrusted “Yugong Yishan” to China Guardian International Auction Co., Ltd. for auction. On the evening of June 18, at China Guardian’s “Grand View Night”, known as the Weather vane of the auction industry, “Foolish Old Man Moves the Mountain” made its final debut. Starting price is 1.200 million RMB, after more than ten rounds of bidding, stopped at 1.8.9 billion yuan pass. In terms of price, it is enough to break the record of Xu Beihong’s oil painting in recent years.
But just as everyone was waiting for the hammer to fall, the auctioneer announced that the work had been rejected due to not reaching the minimum transaction price agreed upon by the seller. So, what is the seller’s “lowest transaction price”? Six months later, the Announcement revealed the mystery -1.900 million.
However, just six months after the film was released, “Yu Gong Yi Shan” ushered in its “peak moment”. According to the Announcement, after the filming of “Yu Gong Yi Shan” was suspended, the company approached Hunan Radio and Television Station and planned to sell “Yu Gong Yi Shan” to Hunan Radio and Television Station. The final transaction amount was determined by both parties to be 2.08.8 billion yuan (including tax). This price has broken the record set by Wu Guanzhong’s Zhouzhuang in 2016.HKD 3.6 billion (approximately RMB 1 at that time).9.7 billion yuan) record.
How to obtain a valuation of 200 million yuan?
In response, the Announcement explained that “the pricing of this transaction is based on the evaluation value of oil paintings”. According to the Announcement, Beijing Zhongqihua Assets Appraisal Co., Ltd. has appraised the value of Xu Beihong’s “Yu Gong Yi Shan” canvas oil painting, selected the market method appraisal result as the appraisal conclusion, and issued the project appraisal and consultation report ZQH ACR Zi (2018) No. 4541. “On the benchmark date of November 10, 2018, the appraisal value of Xu Beihong’s” Yu Gong Yi Shan “canvas oil painting is 200 million yuan.”
This method of pricing artworks by asset appraisal companies is not common. Industry insiders introduce that for auctions with no reserve price, the auction company usually organizes professionals to evaluate them. The reporter logged into the official website of Beijing Zhongqihua Asset Evaluation Co., Ltd. and found that the company’s business areas include enterprise value evaluation, intangible asset evaluation, mining rights evaluation, other asset evaluation, financial services, and so on. In April of this year, in the transaction of Happy Buy 10 Billion and “Mango”, the company once participated as an evaluation agency for major asset restructuring projects, but this is the first time that it has set foot in art valuation.
Why does Radio and Television Media sell “Yu Gong Yi Shan”? The announcement states that “this transaction is based on the needs of the company’s business development. By selling this artwork, the company can recover all the costs of the artwork and obtain a certain investment profit.” However, it is clear that there is a more realistic demand for TVB Media – China Securities News reported that financial reports showed that TVB Media lost 4% in 2017 and the first three quarters of 2018, respectively.6.4 billion yuan and 1.3.5 billion yuan. If it cannot turn around its losses smoothly in the fourth quarter, Radio and Television Media will face the fate of the “Beatles and Hats” (ST). Changing hands on ‘Yu Gong Yi Shan’ this time may reverse the situation of consecutive losses. Some media have calculated an account – if the transaction goes smoothly, the two payments can be completed within two weeks at the earliest, which happens to be on Friday before the end of the year (December 28th).
Is there a secret to the premium transaction?
The premium transaction of ‘Yu Gong Yi Shan’ is particularly eye-catching as the overall economic environment is tightening. Only in this year’s Jiade “Grand View Night”, the high valuation auction of Chang Dai-chien and Fu Baoshi, the calligraphy and painting combination volume of Zhao Mengfu’s “On Music Annals” described in the “Shiqu Baoji”, and the (legendary) “Taizhen Getting on the Horse Painting” by Zhou Wenju were all sold out because the price was not fixed. That night, the total transaction value of over 120 items in the “Grand View Night” was 6.7.5 billion yuan, significantly lower than the 16% increase from last spring’s “Grand View Night” shoot.6.6 billion yuan. Prior to this, it is rumored that Wang Wei’s “Colored Landscape Painting” of the Tang Dynasty was also sold out due to not reaching the protection price. For this reason, Guo Tong, Vice President of China Guardian International Auction Co., Ltd. and General Manager of the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Department, once sighed that the competitive auction market in the past has entered a “very delicate, realistic and cruel adjustment period”.
The seller, Radio and Television Media, and the buyer, Hunan Radio and Television Station, also evoke associations: public information shows that both companies are located in Changsha Golden Eagle Film and Television Cultural City, which is the headquarters of Hunan Radio and Television. According to the relevant spirit of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and Government in the second half of 2018 regarding the integration reform of Hunan Radio and Television, Hunan Radio and Television Station and Radio and Television Media form a related relationship.
Known as the “number one stock of Chinese media”, TVB Media’s main business covers cable networks, media content, investment management, tourism hotels, internet new media, etc. Since 2006, it has gradually operated art investment business. As of the end of 2017, the inventory of TVB Media was 31.4.3 billion yuan, including 14% of inventory goods.4.4 billion yuan, commercial artworks 10.0.1 billion yuan. In 2007, TV and Radio Media bought Li Keran’s “Wanshan Hongbian” in Hong Kong for 35.04 million Hong Kong dollars. In June 2012, the work featured 2.The transaction was completed at 9.3 billion yuan, with a revenue of over 200 million yuan. However, art investment is not the main business of radio and television media. According to the annual report, the company’s art business accounted for only 0% of total revenue in 2016 and 2017, respectively.15% and 2%.08%. From this, it can be seen that in order to completely overcome difficulties, Radio and Television Media still needs to make more efforts in its main business.