Stars eye rich pickings as IPOs are resumed

Chinese Fan Bingbing poses during a photo shoot for Harper's Bazaar magazine. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese movie and TV stars holding shares in companies seeking listings are set to reap huge fortunes, with the authorities opening the floodgates for initial public offerings after a freeze of almost a year.

Nine film companies had announced IPO plans by Tuesday and five of them have movie celebrities as their major shareholders.

Movie star and fashion icon Fan Bingbing holds 1.29 million shares, or a 2.15 percent stake, in Talent International Film Co, while actress and director Zhao Wei holds 1.17 million shares, or a 1.95 percent stake, in the company.

Talent is looking to raise 810 million yuan ($130.6 million) through issuing 20 million shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Based on the average price to earnings ratio of 46.54 for listed media companies last week, Talent is expected to set its IPO price at 40 yuan per share, meaning Fan will be sitting on a paper fortune of 50 million yuan and Zhao will have one of more than 40 million yuan after the company goes public.

Actress Sun Li, who starred in the TV drama The Legend of Zhenhuan, saw her wealth surge to more than 65 million yuan after Hairun Media, in which she holds a 2.61 percent stake, went public through a backdoor listing on June 23.

Film commentator and author Raymond Zhou said: "This is unprecedented. About 10 years ago, film and TV stars' main source of wealth was cash payments, rather than shares in a company or box office dividends."

But the situation has changed in recent years, with China's box office sales surpassing those of Japan in 2012, making the country the world's second-largest film market after the United States.

Cynthia He, a Shanghai fashion magazine editor, said payment for top stars has risen to 1 million yuan for each episode of a TV series, compared with about 150,000 yuan several years ago.

Zhou said that to keep such costs under control, many filmmakers have chosen to offer shares to stars. Celebrities are willing to accept, because the benefits to be reaped from possible IPOs are becoming more attractive.