Who indulged the "expensive remuneration"? "A Chinese Ghost Story" brings the listed company ST Beiwen into a serious illness, and the former executiv
Every reporter: Ding Zhou and Yang Keyang
Celebrity Zheng Shuang's investigation into suspected tax evasion for "expensive pay" will finally come to light.
Compared with the investigation by the tax authority, the question of this covert violation by the securities regulatory authority is more direct. As early as the end of May, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange publicly questioned ST Beiwen (Beijing Culture), the investor of "A Chinese Ghost Story" and the listed company.
Investors and regulators all hope that ST Beiwen can answer: Do listed companies knowingly commit and condone "sky-priced rewards"? In order to circumvent supervision, is it to "package" the cost of film remuneration into equity investment? And behind this, are there any behaviors such as confusion of internal control of listed companies and violations of information disclosure?
Recently, the "Daily Economic News" reporter obtained the financial information of the show from Lou Xiaoxi, the former director of the "A Chinese Ghost Story" project (the former vice chairman of Beijing Culture, who reported Beijing Culture's financial fraud in real name in 2020). A document signed by related parties shows that in August 2019, when Zheng Shuang's drama was completed, he had actually spent over 189 million yuan in actor labor, and the actor labor budget amounted to 212 million yuan. "Among them, Zheng Shuang is the biggest coffee position, and the total salary of other actors is about 30 million yuan."
"This is the work account reported by the crew to Beijing Culture, so Beijing Culture will not be ignorant of Zheng Shuang's pay." Lou Xiaoxi believes that the financial information he has on the crew plus the evidence provided by Zhang Heng makes Beijing Culture "named" The fact that the increase in capital is actually the cost of the actors has been confirmed.
In early July, an investor asked on the investor relations platform when will the company respond to the inquiry letter? "Don't speak Mandarin, give me the latest deadline." ST Beiwen's secretary of the board still responded "as soon as possible." This time, the head of ST Beiwen told reporters that Lou Xiaoxi’s revelations lacked factual basis and the company did not respond.
Actual cost: the illegal and sky-high remuneration set early
At the beginning of 2018, under the introduction of producer Du Yue, Century Partners, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing Culture, came into contact with the "A Chinese Ghost Story" project, and Lou Xiaoxi was serving as the company's legal representative and chairman at that time.
The trader of "A Chinese Ghost Story" is Zhou Zhengyuan, who has worked as a producer for several film and television series of Hairun Film and Television. Zhou Zhengyuan put out the project, and the listed company paid the money to make the show together.
Since Partner of the Century became the producer of "A Chinese Ghost Story", Lou Xiaoxi began to participate in this project. All project budgets including the actors' salaries will be reported to Lou Xiaoxi by Zhou Zhengyuan, and Lou Xiaoxi will be reported to Beijing Culture, which will not be approved until Beijing Culture is approved. The execution process proceeds.
Lou Xiaoxi remembers that at the beginning of 2018, Zhou Zhengyuan reported him an actor's salary. At that time, he planned to give a female Zheng Shuang (or an actor of the same level) a salary budget of 150 million yuan (after tax), and the male's budget was originally set to be 120 million yuan (after tax), “just for Zheng Shuang’s money, the male number one was later given to him. The final contract completed by the male number one was 18 million yuan.”
The production budget of "A Chinese Ghost Story" provided by Lou Xiaoxi to reporters shows that the script has 50 episodes and 60 episodes have been completed; the role of Nie Xiaoqian is "Zheng Shuang same level", the price is 150 million yuan, the tax rate is 9%, and the subtotal is 163 million yuan. .
On February 28, 2018, Century Partners and Zheng Shuang’s two companies, Jiujiang Herd Effect Film and Television Culture Studio and Jiujiang Kukuxiong Film and Television Culture Studio, signed two actor contracts, each with a remuneration of 75 million and a total of 1.5 Billion. At the end of March 2018, Lou Xiaoxi and Song Ge broke up and left Beijing Culture.
The "A Chinese Ghost Story" project continued to be promoted by Zhou Zhengyuan, and less than half a year after an agreed salary of 150 million yuan, a salary limit order was issued. From June to August of that year, the five national departments focused on rectifying the phenomenon of abnormally high star pay. The three major video websites and six major film and television production companies further stipulated that the total pay (including tax) of an actor's work should not exceed 50 million yuan.
In Lou Xiaoxi's opinion, after the new rules were released, the "A Chinese Ghost Story" project changed a way to bypass the regulations. After Zheng Shuang entered the group for shooting in April 2019, Zheng Shuang still got the sky-high price pay.
According to Lou Xiaoxi’s "A Chinese Ghost Story" project budget implementation form (July 15): The total budget for the entire project is 352 million yuan, of which the budget for the actor's labor service is 212 million yuan. This budget statement was signed by the then production director, executive producer, and financial review, and the date of signature is July 16, 2019.
The picture is provided by Lou Xiaoxi to the reporter of "Daily Economic News"
"In the budget, 212 million are actors (labor services), and the number one male is 12 million. The remaining 20 million includes all actors (except Zheng Shuang)." Lou Xiaoxi said.
In addition, in the "Qian Nu" project budget execution table, there are even separate parts such as "signed contract amount", "contract paid amount" and "actual expenditure amount", and the difference in the actor's labor part is not small. On July 15, 2019, the contract value of the actor labor service was 20.76 million, the contract paid was 15.28 million, and the actual expenditure reached 141 million yuan, which exceeded the signed contract amount by 120 million yuan.
The remuneration contract signed was only more than 20 million yuan, where did the expenditure of 141 million yuan come from? How to explain the huge difference between the contract amount and the actual expenditure amount?
"This budget is recognized by Beijing Culture, otherwise it is impossible to report it like this." Lou Xiaoxi believes that this can explain from the side that Beijing Culture has carried out an illegal operation called "capital increase, which is actually the cost of actors" in order to pay Zheng Shuang's sky-high remuneration.
In August when Zheng Shuang's drama was finalized, "A Chinese Girl" had actually spent 189 million yuan in actor labor in the executive budget. The actor labor budget was 212 million yuan, and the project is expected to have 33 million yuan before the finale. "Zheng Shuang entered the crew for 77 days and left the crew in August. Generally, filming is done by robbing the protagonist first, and then the protagonist will start filming other scenes as soon as the protagonist has left, so after the remuneration of her is settled, the crew will be paid. Very few." Lou Xiaoxi explained.
Named Capital Increase: Zheng Shuang’s mother raided the establishment of a technology company
Under the salary limit order, how did the total of 160 million yuan of salary flow to Zheng Shuang? Combined with the evidence disclosed by Zhang Heng, a complete puzzle emerged.
Zhang Heng broke the news on Weibo that after Zheng Shuang entered the group in April 2019, the 160 million film remuneration agreed upon by the dramatists of "A Chinese Ghost Story" and Zheng Shuang was split into a 48 million film remuneration and a 112 million capital increase through a Yin-Yang contract in two steps. paragraph. Of the 48 million, Zheng Shuang personally signed an actor employment contract with Century Partners, while the remaining 1.12 yuan was paid in the name of "capital increase."
The reporter inquired about the business registration information and learned that in March 2019, just one month before Zheng Shuang entered the group, Zheng Shuang’s mother Liu Yan invested in the establishment of Shanghai Jingyansha Technology Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 80 million. Zheng Shuang’s mother was the actual investor of the company. , And the only actual shareholder, Zhang Limin is the nominal investor. Lin Huiyan and Zhang Limin hold 40% and 30% of Shanghai Jingyansha Technology.
Lin Huiyan and Zhang Limin hold the shares of Shanghai Jingyansha Technology Co., Ltd. on behalf of Zheng Shuang’s mother
According to Zhang Heng's public revelation
In April 2019, Zheng Shuang entered the group and started filming "A Chinese Ghost Story".
The actor rights transfer contract provided by Lou Xiaoxi shows that in May 2019, Century Partners transferred all the rights under the actor contract signed with Zheng Shuang to Tianjin Jiaxuan Film and Television Culture Co., Ltd. under the name of producer Zhou Zhengyuan. After the transfer agreement takes effect, Tianjin Jiaxuan will pay the remuneration to the first woman in accordance with the contract.
Subsequently, Du Yue and Zhou Zhengyuan, as the core producers of "A Chinese Ghost Story", re-signed a 77-day actor's remuneration contract with Zheng Shuang on behalf of Partner Century, and the remuneration dropped to 48 million.
Another month later, the technology company funded by Zheng Shuang's mother received a capital increase. On June 16, 2019, Zhejiang Weizhong Film and Television Media Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Jingyansha signed a total capital increase agreement of 112 million yuan.
Zhejiang Weizhong was established in 2016 with a registered capital of 10 million. The actual controller is Du Xinfang.
Phoenix Net Finance reported in May 2021 that Du Xinfang had stated that Zhejiang Weizhong was indeed a company under his name, and he was indeed aware of the existence of this payment in 2019. However, Du Xinfang expressed “unclear” about the shareholders and company background of the recipient Shanghai Jingyansha, and the relationship between the company and Zheng Shuang’s mother, and explained that “the specific situation is handled by'they'” , "The specifics are generally handled by'they'."
The reporter of "Daily Economic News" dialed Zhejiang Weizhong's mobile phone number registered in the industrial and commercial registration, and the other party said Du Xinfang had changed the number.
It is unknown where Zhejiang Weizhong and Du Xinfang paid 112 million yuan, but the day after the two parties signed the capital increase agreement, Zhejiang Weizhong transferred the first investment of 5 million yuan to Shanghai Jingyansha.
Starting from August 2, 2019, fans of Zheng Shuang continued to congratulate Zheng Shuang on Weibo, and just the day before, Zhejiang Weizhong also transferred the last 7 million investment to Shanghai Jingyansha.
Public information collation
According to Zhang Heng’s bank account, Zheng Shuang’s success was less than a week away. From August 6th, Shanghai Jingyansha has successively transferred funds to the company’s legal representative Lin Huiyan’s personal account in the name of “borrowing”, only on August 6 , In two days on the 7th, 14 “loans” totaling 4 million were transferred out. In March 2021, after the Zheng Shuang surrogacy incident was exposed, Zhang Limin, Hui Min, and Lin Huiyan withdrew from the shareholder list of Shanghai Jingyansha Technology.
The reporter of "Daily Economic News" dialed the mobile phone number registered in the industrial and commercial registration to inquire about Lin Huiyan's capital flow and the relationship with Zheng Shuang, but the call was not answered.
Lou Xiaoxi questioned that Zhejiang Weizhong is a company affiliated with Zhou Zhengyuan, one of the producers of "A Chinese Ghost Story". In response to this, the "Daily Economic News" reporter called Zhou Zhengyuan, and the other party responded: "I don't know about this," and then hung up the phone. Du Yue, another producer of "A Chinese Ghost Story", said: "There is nothing to respond to.
Self-sacrifice: ST Beiwen suspected of violation of information disclosure
"If a production company invests in a technology company and fails to report Beijing culture, it is called fraud. If it reports Beijing culture and Beijing culture does not make an announcement, it is a violation of the letter and disclosure." Lou Xiaoxi believes.
In addition, it is difficult for Beijing Culture to prevaricate without knowing and not disclosing any information from the “sky price” to the “yin and yang contract”.
Regarding the "A Chinese Ghost Story" project, there are very few announcements from Beijing Culture. In the 2018 annual report, it was mentioned that "A Chinese Ghost Story" has brought Beijing Culture an income of 358 million yuan.
However, this income has not settled in the end.
In 2018, Century Partners planned to transfer 40% of the investment income right of "A Chinese Ghost Story" at a price of 380 million yuan (before tax) to Yaget International Culture Media (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yaget). Grid failed to fulfill the payment obligations as agreed, and the "A Chinese Girl" project is still in the hands of Century Partners.
After the Zheng Shuang surrogacy incident, Beijing Culture’s 2020 performance forecast stated that “the main projects include the costume TV series invested and produced by the company. Affected by the public opinion events of the main actors, there is a major uncertainty about whether the show can be broadcast”. The "main project" mentioned in the article probably refers to "A Chinese Ghost Story".
The "Daily Business News" previously reported that there was a "force majeure clause" when signing the contract when selling the drama. One of them was: due to national laws, regulations and other factors, the content cannot be broadcast normally, Century Partners must pay all of the platform party The fee is refunded, and the remaining unpaid fees of the platform party will not be paid.
In February 2020, Beijing Culture sold Century Partners for a transaction price of 48 million yuan. However, when the partner of the century was hurriedly sold, it did not include the "A Chinese Ghost Story" project. Before the partner of the century was sold, "A Chinese Ghost" had been transferred from the partner of the century to the name of Beijing culture.
This also means that there is a high probability that "A Chinese Ghost Story" will not be broadcast, and the resulting losses will also be borne by Beijing culture.
When Beijing Culture acquired Century Partners in 2016, the two parties signed a gambling agreement. Century Partners promised to complete the goal of not less than 90 million, 110 million, 135 million and 150 million in net profit from 2014 to 2017. Judging from the annual report of Beijing Culture, during the gambling period, Century Partners completed the task every year.
However, starting from 2019, Century Partners has turned from profit to loss, with a huge loss of 630 million yuan, and Beijing Culture's loss has reached 2.3 billion yuan.
In the past, Lou Xiaoxi, the former executive of the company, reported the financial fraud by the chairman and others in real name. Later, there was a thunderstorm in Zheng Shuang’s drama "A Chinese Ghost Story". Now the largest shareholder and second largest shareholder of the company without a real controller have returned. Joining hands with the current board of directors to fight for control...
As the producer behind many hits such as "Wolf Warriors 2", "I'm Not the God of Medicine", and "Wandering Earth", Beijing Culture was once known as the "explosive production machine" in the film and television industry, but one after another chaotic financial problem Under the circumstances, Beijing Culture faced a storm while producing explosives, and eventually pushed itself to the brink of delisting.
Regarding the above situation, the reporter of "Daily Economic News" contacted Song Ge, chairman of Beijing Culture, by phone or text message to verify, but no reply was received.
Reporter hand Kee Shu behind the price investors pay a fee
If the film and television industry cannot completely ban the sky-high remuneration and blindly chase "traffic", it will always move forward with shackles.
When the "Salary Limit Order" was first introduced, several major video websites responded in succession, but at almost the same time, the relevant parties of "A Chinese Ghost Story" moved around and easily circumvented the regulations.
If you regard celebrities as a commodity whose price is determined by value and influenced by supply and demand, then the sky-high remuneration offered by film and television companies is a manifestation of its value in the market. According to market laws, film and television companies should be able to earn enough profits from their stars to form a profitable closed loop. But the fact is that, on the one hand, the sky-high remuneration is constantly squeezing production fees and other costs. On the other hand, judging from the annual reports of listed companies in the film and television industry, most film and television companies are still in the quagmire of losses.
Beijing Culture suffered a huge loss of 2.305 billion in 2019; another loss of 767 million in 2020. Eventually, in 2020, it was "ST" because the accounting firm had a negative opinion on the effectiveness of the company's internal control in 2020.
At present, the company's stock price has fallen by more than 88% from its June 2015 high of 42.71 yuan per share. Behind the stock price plunge due to various scandals, the small and medium-sized retail investors who have been deeply affected are still the most hurt. If ST Beiwen finally delists, where will they go?
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