股东战略分歧致东方梦工厂前途存疑

Universal Pictures, the movie studio owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal, is on course to offload its stake in Oriental DreamWorks, the animation group, following disagreements over strategy with one of the company’s other main backers, Li Ruigang’s China Media Capital.

康卡斯特(Comcast)旗下NBC环球集团(NBC Universal)拥有的电影公司环球影业(Universal Pictures)，正寻求出售其在动画公司东方梦工厂(Oriental DreamWorks)中所持的股份。此前，环球影业与东方梦工厂的另一个主要股东——黎瑞刚的华人文化产业投资基金(CMC)——产生了战略上的分歧。

CMC has had preliminary talks with Warner Brothers, the Time Warner-owned studio, about replacing Universal in Oriental DreamWorks, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

两名知情人士透露，华人文化产业投资基金与时代华纳(Time Warner)旗下电影公司华纳兄弟(Warner Brothers)已进行过初步谈判。

Universal and Warner declined to comment although a person with knowledge of the talks that Warner has had with CMC said it was unclear how serious Warner was in pursuing a deal.

环球影业与华纳兄弟拒绝置评，尽管一名了解上述谈判的人士称，华纳兄弟对达成交易的态度有多么认真还是个未知数。

Universal inherited its 45 per cent stake in Oriental DreamWorks, widely regarded as the flagship joint venture between Hollywood and China, when it acquired Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DreamWorks — the studio behind the Shrek and King Fu Panda films — in 2016 for $3.8bn. However, it quickly became clear that it had a different vision to Mr Li.

2016年以38亿美元收购《怪物史莱克》(Shrek)和《功夫熊猫》(King Fu Panda)系列影片的制作方——杰弗里•卡岑贝格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)的梦工厂(DreamWorks)——之后，环球影业继承了后者所持的东方梦工厂45%的股份。东方梦工厂被广泛认为是好莱坞与中国之间的旗舰合资企业。不过，有一件事很快明朗起来：环球影业与黎瑞刚的愿景不同。

“We talked about changing the strategy of Oriental DreamWorks and decreasing the size of the company in order to focus more on the creative side,” Mr Li told the Financial Times.

“我们探讨了改变东方梦工厂的战略，以及缩小该公司的规模，以便更多地聚焦创意业务，”黎瑞刚告诉英国《金融时报》。

“Also, I am focused more on China and less globally while they want to make films in China for the world. Today, the priority of Universal is a theme park in Beijing.”

“而且，我更多地关注中国，不那么关注全球，可他们想在中国为全世界制作电影。如今，环球影业的优先任务是北京的一个主题公园。”

Mr Li already has a relationship with Warner, having formed Flagship Entertainment, a Chinese film venture, with the media company in 2015. But if a deal cannot be struck with Warner to take on Universal’s Oriental DreamWorks stake, the future of the animation group is unclear.

黎瑞刚已与华纳兄弟建立了合作关系，他于2015年与这家媒体公司在华组建了合资公司旗舰影业(Flagship Entertainment)。但是，如果无法与华纳兄弟达成让其接手环球影业所持东方梦工厂股份的交易，这家动画公司的未来会是个未知数。

“The only way this will be resolved is if someone buys Universal’s share or someone buys CMC’s share,” said one former employee. “If nothing happens [Oriental DreamWorks] will just die.”

“唯一的解决办法是，有人收购环球影业所持股份，或者有人收购华人文化产业投资基金所持股份，”一名前员工说，“如果这两种情形都未发生，(东方梦工厂)就只有死路一条。”

Owning the Oriental DreamWorks stake is less essential for Universal because it has other film distribution and consumer products operations in China.

持有东方梦工厂的股份对于环球影业而言并不特别重要，因为该公司在中国还有其他影片发行业务和消费产品业务。

Mr Li recently raised $600m for his second US dollar fund for offshore investments, though many Chinese investors believe he could have raised far more.

不久前，黎瑞刚为他的第二支美元离岸投资基金筹集了6亿美元，尽管许多中国投资者相信他可以筹到比这多得多的资金。

“The system trusts him and he is commercial enough so that investors trust him as well,” said the head of a private equity firm that has many of the same investors as Mr Li, adding that media is the most sensitive area in China, making government connections particularly valuable. “For entertainment he is the only game in town.”

“体制信任他，而且他也是商场老手，所以投资者也信任他，”一家私人股本公司的负责人说。该公司拥有不少像黎瑞刚这样的投资者。这名负责人接着说，传媒是中国最敏感的领域，因此政府的人脉格外有价值。“在娱乐领域，他是最佳选择。”

With talks between Oriental DreamWorks investors continuing, the company has been losing staff because of budget cuts, with many top executives poached, said one former employee who now works for a competing company.

一名曾供职东方梦工厂、现供职其竞争对手的人士说，东方梦工厂股东之间的谈判仍在继续进行之际，该公司已因预算削减而不断减员，许多高管被挖了墙脚。

The last movie the company released was last year’s Kung Fu Panda 3

东方梦工厂出品的最后一部电影是去年的《功夫熊猫3》(Kung Fu Panda 3)， which earned $154m at the box office, making it one of the most lucrative animation movies ever released in mainland China. Everest, the next Oriental DreamWorks movie scheduled for release, is not expected to be shown before 2019.

该片票房达1.54亿美元，成为中国内地最赚钱的动画片之一。东方梦工厂计划出品的下一部电影《珠穆朗玛》(Everest)，预计不会在2019年之前上映。