Recently, capital mogul Ke Liming's holdings in two "Ruyi Group" companies have been subject to new enforcement actions.
According to corporate data, on August 28, equity stakes worth 2.97 million yuan in Shanghai Ruyi Film Production Co., Ltd. ("Ruyi Film") and 9.9 million yuan in Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Co., Ltd. ("Ruyi Investment") were frozen by the Jinan Intermediate People's Court of Shandong Province. The total frozen equity amounts to 12.87 million yuan, with a freezing period of three years.
According to equity information, Ke Liming serves as the legal representative of both companies and directly holds 99% of the shares in each. Ruyi Investment was established in 2015 with registered capital of 10 million yuan, while Ruyi Film was established in 2013 with registered capital of 3 million yuan.
Notably, Ruyi Film and Ruyi Investment jointly hold approximately 20.64% of Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. (Stock code: 002739.SZ) through "Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd.," making them major shareholders. Ultimate beneficial ownership information also shows that Ke Liming is the actual controller of Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd.
The reasons for freezing the equity stakes of these two "Ruyi Group" companies remain unclear, but analyzing the complex relationship between Ke Liming and Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. reveals several interesting aspects.
**Wang Jianlin's Abandoned Wanda Film Revitalized by Ke Liming in One Year**
Public records show that Beijing Wanda Investment was established in 2006 with registered capital of 3 billion yuan. On April 15, 2024, original shareholders Wang Jianlin and Wanda Culture Group withdrew, and the legal representative was changed to Ke Liming.
On April 17 of that year, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. announced the completion of indirect controlling shareholder equity transfer and change of company control, formally disclosing that Wang Jianlin and his affiliated companies signed an equity transfer agreement with Shanghai Ruyi Investment at the end of 2023, transferring their combined 51% stake in Beijing Wanda Investment to Ruyi Investment for 2.155 billion yuan. After this transaction, the actual controller changed to Ke Liming.
After selling his controlling stake, Wang Jianlin continued to reduce his holdings in Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. Through corporate equity penetration analysis, Shen County Rongzhi, which currently holds 4.39% of Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd., has Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd. as its controlling shareholder, with Wang Jianlin as the actual controller. This year, Shen County Rongzhi has reduced its holdings in Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. twice.
Meanwhile, another major shareholder of Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd., Alibaba, has also been significantly reducing its holdings. In 2018, Alibaba purchased a 7.66% stake in Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. through its affiliated company "Hangzhou Zhenxi Investment Management Co., Ltd." for a total price of 4.676 billion yuan. However, on August 19, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. announced that Hangzhou Zhenxi had recently reduced its holdings by no more than 29.41 million shares through centralized bidding and block trading. After this equity change, Hangzhou Zhenxi's shareholding ratio dropped to approximately 5%.
Currently, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. can still be considered a quality asset left by the "Wanda Group." On August 27, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. disclosed its interim results, achieving revenue of 6.689 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 7.57% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders reached 536 million yuan, up 372.55% year-on-year.
Additionally, it has maintained its box office championship for 16 consecutive years. Among the top 100 cinemas nationwide by box office, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. increased from 47 in 2024 to 51; among the top 500 cinemas, it increased from 216 in 2024 to 246 in 2025, significantly higher than the same period last year. Most notably during the Spring Festival period, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd.'s box office exceeded 1.24 billion yuan, setting a historical record.
From a strategic development perspective, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. is transforming from a "cinema operator" to a "super entertainment space" creator. In June this year, it announced its "1+2+5" strategy at a press conference. The "1" refers to super entertainment spaces; "2" refers to domestic and international markets; "5" refers to five major business segments: cinema chains, film and TV series, strategic investment, trendy toys, and gaming. This represents a new approach born after Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. completed its merger and reorganization.
In fact, due to the pandemic combined with the film industry winter, Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd.'s financial performance was poor previously. From 2019-2023, revenue fluctuated significantly at 15.435 billion yuan, 6.295 billion yuan, 12.49 billion yuan, 9.695 billion yuan, and 14.62 billion yuan respectively; net profits were -4.722 billion yuan, -6.841 billion yuan, 116 million yuan, -1.958 billion yuan, and 932 million yuan respectively, totaling losses of 12.473 billion yuan over five years.
From this perspective, in the year after being acquired by the "Ruyi Group," cinema chain leader Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd. has indeed delivered impressive results.
**"Opportunistic Player": Key Driver Behind China Ruyi's Listing**
Focusing on Ke Liming himself, he not only has keen insight in screen investments but is also quite adept at capital market maneuvering.
According to records, Ke Liming was born in Huanggang, Hubei in 1982. Despite being academically unbalanced as a child, he excelled in mathematics and went abroad for high school. After obtaining a master's degree in monetary banking, he entered the financial industry and worked at Hong Kong's Persistent Hedge Fund for five years.
However, with the outbreak of the 2008 financial crisis, Ke Liming decisively changed careers and joined his brother Ke Jiuming's Ruyi Xinxin Film Industry on the mainland. Established in 2007, the company previously focused on advertising, but after Ke Liming's arrival, he renamed it and began investing in film and TV productions. His vision proved exceptional, investing as producer or co-producer in numerous hit series including "Iron Teeth Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan 4," "The Women of the Knife-Wielding Family," "Beiping is Peaceful," and later creating phenomenal works like "Nirvana in Fire" and "The Legend of Mi Yue."
In 2012, Ke Liming backed Zhao Wei's directorial debut "So Young." Youth-themed works weren't popular in the market at the time, but who could have predicted that when it was released in April 2013, it would gross over 700 million yuan, setting the highest box office record for a Chinese female director. Ke Liming gained significant recognition in the big screen investment circle and subsequently invested in many acclaimed and commercially successful films, including "Old Boys," "Tiny Times 3," "Sewing Machine Band," "Hi, Mom," and "A Little Red Flower."
Having made money from film and TV productions, Ke Liming didn't forget his financial background. In 2014, Ruyi Film "curved its way" into A-shares through acquisition by Zhongji Holdings, with an acquisition price of 1.5 billion yuan, equivalent to 11.54 times price-to-earnings ratio. However, as Zhongji Holdings subsequently fell into losses due to poor management, before its delisting, Ke Liming timely withdrew and partnered with Xu Jiayin to move the company to Hong Kong stocks.
In April 2020, HengTen Networks, jointly established by Evergrande and Tencent, announced the full acquisition of Ruyi Film for 7.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, with respective stakes of 55.6% and 19.32%, with Evergrande as the lead.
Dramatically, when Evergrande fell into debt crisis and Xu Jiayin began selling assets for self-rescue, HengTen Networks bore the brunt. In June 2021, Ke Liming acquired 739 million shares of HengTen Networks for 4.433 billion Hong Kong dollars. After the transfer, Evergrande held 37.55% of HengTen Networks, while Ke Liming's shareholding rose to 20.5%, surpassing Tencent to become the second-largest shareholder.
In November that year, Evergrande cleared its position in HengTen Networks, and Ke Liming successfully executed a "reverse takeover," replacing Xu Jiayin as the actual controller of HengTen Networks. In December, HengTen Networks announced its name change to China Ruyi. As of now, Ke Liming holds 18.32% of China Ruyi shares and serves as chairman of the board.
Notably, besides Wanda cinemas, Ke Liming's "Ruyi Group" has repeatedly provided "emergency assistance" to Wang Jianlin's Wanda Group. On July 22 this year, China Ruyi acquired the core asset of Wanda's financial segment - 99Bill Financial - for 240 million yuan. The company's greatest value lies in holding a third-party payment license issued by the People's Bank of China, and this transaction may hide China Ruyi's transformation ambitions to enter the financial payment sector.
Regarding this acquisition of 99Bill Financial, China Ruyi believes the acquisition will promote the group's entry into third-party payment and fintech sectors. It expects 99Bill Financial's payment services to create synergies with China Ruyi's existing businesses, including online streaming, online gaming services, and the offline cinema business of its indirectly invested subsidiary Wanda Film Holding Co.,Ltd.
However, this payment license has not only depreciated by nearly 70% but also faces less than a year of validity while receiving multiple regulatory penalties for violations. At the time, senior financial industry analyst Wang Pengbo from Botong Consulting stated, "99Bill has always been an offline merchant acquiring institution, with offline scenarios accounting for the absolute majority of revenue. However, the bank card acquiring market itself is in a contraction state, and future profit growth rates need verification. Moreover, 99Bill has been fined over 10 million yuan cumulatively in the past three years, exposing weaknesses in its risk control system. Ruyi needs to invest resources in rectification to avoid license revocation risks."
Whether Ke Liming's cross-sector gamble will succeed again remains to be answered by the future market.
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