Facilitates Cultural and Creative Industry Development in Mainland China
Nurtures Cultural and Creative Commercial Development
A provider of integrated marketing solutions in Greater China, Activation Group Holdings Limited (“Activation” or the “Company”, collectively, the “Group”, stock code: 9919) has officially signed a Limited Partnership Agreement with Shanghai Innovital Capital (“SHIVC”) to jointly establish an industry fund amounting to RMB1 billion. The fund is set to help the Group to invest and develop related businesses in pan-cultural industries, such as fashion, sports and entertainment industry, digital and creative marketing segment and ultimately optimize the operation layout for brand and IP establishment. Recently, SHIVC has also taken a 14.42% stake in Activation to become its major shareholder.
The signing ceremony was held at SHIVC’s Shanghai Hongqiao Fund Town; the representative from Shanghai Municipal People’s Government attended the ceremony and delivered a speech to show his support. He highly praised Activation’s keen efforts in promoting the pan-cultural industries in China and anticipates the Group to incubate many more successful cultural and creative enterprises, thereby contributing to the pan-cultural industries from its cooperation with SHIVC.
In recent years, the Government has highly valued the development of the cultural industry and deemed the acceleration of its development a key strategic task. Shanghai has always spearheaded the development of domestic cultural and creative industries, and this “cultural and creative circle” has sparked its glamour in recent years, fostering top start-ups and talents with great potential through its unique industrial strength and continuously optimised business environment. Benefited from the favourable policies, the cultural industry has become one of the key industries in Shanghai supporting economic development, and is a major driving force to facilitate the innovation-driven development and economic transformation of the city. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has put greater efforts into looking after and supporting the cultural industry through the launching of new protective measures to reduce the burdens of companies including the optimisation of review and approval procedures, the provision of capital and financial support as well as rental reduction, all in a bid to boost enterprises’ confidence towards the development of this important industry.
Initiated by the Shanghai Municipal Government, SHIVC is a fund that focuses on strategically emerging areas and innovative venture capital platform, so as to accomplish the mission of leading the innovation and transformation of Shanghai. Adhering to the guiding and operational policies of “marketization, professionalism and internationalization”, the fund of over RMB10 billion is set to enhance the support for related industries.
Zhang Sai Mei, General Manager of SHIVC said, “There are lots of cultural and creative enterprises and talents with tremendous potential in China. Activation is one of the very few companies in China with an international perspective while specialising in satisfying the needs of the local market. Boosted by the extensive investment and financial resources of SHIVC, we can offer strong support to the local cultural and creative enterprises to step up to the international stage.”
Activation is a leading and fast-growing integrated marketing solutions provider and brands and international IPs operator that focuses on the provision of experiential marketing, digital and brand communication, and public relations services primarily in the Greater China market. The shares of the Company have been listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited since 16 January 2020. According to an independent market research report issued by China Insights Industry Consultancy Limited, the Group ranked first in the experiential marketing services for premium and luxury brands market in Greater China in 2018. The Group also focuses on tapping the sports and entertainment IP development sector.
During the press conference, Lau Kam Yiu, Joint-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Activation, said, “Our cooperation with SHIVC aims to boost the development of the pan-cultural industry in China. On one hand, to introduce top international IPs and well-established operational models into China through investments; on the other hand, to nurture and invest in the local pan-cultural content providers and enterprises that are able to lead the global fashion trend, concentrating their focus in Shanghai.”
Both parties also expressed that with the combination of their resources, they can build a global pan-cultural IP industry chain clustering around Activation, utilising the power of capital investment for industry development and helping local talents in China create content IP dedicated to China, hence further satisfying the increasing demand of Chinese citizens for better lives. It is believed that the Chinese local content will be recognized globally and eventually create leading trends in the world.
Activation, alongside with an international supermodel and fashion designer, Lv Yan, presented a fashion show for her personal designer brand “COMME MOI” after the press conference, kicking off the grand prelude of the cooperation.
About Activation Group Holdings Limited
Activation Group Holdings Limited is a leading and fast-growing integrated marketing solutions provider and brands and international IPs operator that focuses on the provision of experiential marketing, digital and brand communication, and public relations services primarily in the Greater China market. The shares of the Company have been listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited since 16 January 2020. According to an independent market research report issued by China Insights Industry Consultancy Limited, the Group ranked first in the experiential marketing services for premium and luxury brands market in Greater China in 2018. The Group also focuses on tapping the sports and entertainment IP development sector. Since 2016, the Group has operated an IP development business for the sports market, having entered into cooperation agreements with LaLiga and Amaury Sport Organisation, which granted the Group exclusive rights to respectively organise authorised events with the LaLiga Club brand and Le Tour de France brand and rights for marketing, sponsorship, merchandising and other uses in the PRC. In 2017, the Group established Stufish Asia Limited with Stufish Productions Limited to tap the entertainment IP development industry.
About Shanghai Innovital Capital
Initiated by the Shanghai Municipal Government, SHIVC is a fund that focuses on strategically emerging areas and innovative venture capital platform, so as to accomplish the mission of leading the innovation and transformation of Shanghai. Adhering to the guiding and operational policies of “marketization, professionalism and internationalization”, the fund of over RMB10 billion is set to attract more capital into venture investments, steer the right course of capital flow, and enhance the support for companies in the early or middle stages, industrial chains and clusters. So far, the capital under its management has exceeded RMB50 billion, comprising investments in nearly 1,000 innovative enterprises and business incubation projects. It has also nurtured a wide arrange of leading companies with their own intellectual property (IP) such as Weimob, ByteDance, Ingenic, Shanghai Electronic Certificate Authority, Cambricon, Qi An Xin, LUNO, and New Culture. Currently, SHIVC has four major investment strategies, and one of them is focusing on the investments in pan-cultural industries through cultural and entertainment promotion and distribution.