What happened to Zhao Wei?

Zhao Wei's "female version of Buffett" is full of controversy, and the misconduct of her artists has once again pulled it into the whirlpool of public opinion

Wen | Reporter Zhang Qian of Caijing

Editor| Zhu Tao

On the evening of August 26, some netizens found that many works starring Zhao Wei on major video platforms had removed her from the cast list, including her famous work "Huan Zhu Gege", and Zhao Wei's Weibo super talk was suddenly closed.

According to the Enterprise Investigation App, on August 26, Beijing Prince Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Prince Company"), which is 70% controlled by Zhao Wei, withdrew from the ranks of shareholders of Shanghai Tongtong xin cultural communication co., LTD., and the actual controller of the company was changed from Zhao Wei to Wei Qiying. Prior to this, Principe Company recently withdrew from a number of corporate shareholders, including Khorgos Concentric Culture Communication Co., Ltd. The risk information of the enterprise investigation shows that Zhao Wei currently has a number of risks such as equity freezing and securities misrepresentation liability disputes.

It is reported that The Principe Company is Zhao Wei's performance agency, and Zhang Zhehan, who was previously "banned" by the whole network, signed an artist for the company.

The "Finance" reporter contacted Zhao Wei Studio many times, but did not get a reply from the other party as of press time.

In recent years, Zhao Wei has been caught in the storm of public opinion many times, and unlike other entertainers, her public opinion is mostly focused on the capital market. Zhao Wei and her husband Huang Youlong were once named "female version of Buffett" because of their many successful investments.

One of the most concerned events is that Zhao Wei and his wife have twice reduced their holdings in Ali Pictures, cashing out nearly HK$2 billion. According to the information of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, on December 20, 2014, Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong bought 9.18% of the shares of Alibaba Pictures at a price of HK$1.6 per share, costing nearly HK$3.1 billion, becoming the second largest shareholder of Alibaba Pictures. On April 29 and 30, 2015, Zhao Wei and Huang Youlong reduced their holdings of 256 million alibaba pictures shares at HK$390 million per share, reducing their shareholding from 9.18% to 7.96% and cashing out HK$588.8 million. On 5 October 2016, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Wei reduced their holdings by another 799.3 million Alibaba Pictures shares to 4.97% at a price of HK$1.571 per share, cashing out more than HK$1.2 billion.

This operation has triggered speculation from the outside world that Zhao Wei and his wife have close contacts with Alibaba founder Ma Yun, and dissatisfaction with Zhao Wei's "cutting leeks" behavior. In response, Ma Yun once responded that he and Zhao Wei were not familiar with each other, "adding up to no more than ten times of meeting, of which at least five times are still because of public welfare activities together."

Another acquisition led by Zhao Wei and his wife also triggered the CSRC to intervene in the investigation. On December 23, 2016, Tibet Longwei Culture Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Longwei Media"), in which Zhao Wei holds 95% of the shares, signed a share transfer agreement with Wanjia Group to acquire 29.135% of the shares of Wanjia Culture. Among them, Longwei Media was established on November 2, 2016, with a registered capital of 2 million yuan, and when the acquisition event just began, the registered capital of Longwei Media was not paid in place, and it had not yet carried out business. On December 29, 2016, Wanjia Culture issued an announcement that it had received the Inquiry Letter on matters related to the disclosure of information on the changes in the rights and interests of Zhejiang Wanhao Wanjia Culture Co., Ltd. from the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Longwei Media disclosed the source of the acquisition funds through Wanjia Culture, of the 3.06 billion yuan of funds it used for the proposed acquisition, its own funds were only 0.6 billion yuan, and the leverage ratio reached 51 times, and the outside world suspected that Zhao Wei's purpose of registering Longwei Media was to use this as a shell company to leverage the acquisition of Wanjia Culture.

It is worth mentioning that from the announcement of Longwei Media's acquisition of Wanjia Culture, the acquisition process was full of twists and turns, until the acquisition was terminated, and the stock price of Wanjia Culture experienced a "roller coaster" of sharp rise and fall, and ordinary investors suffered heavy losses.

On April 11, 2018, the CSRC issued a relevant penalty decision disclosing that in the process of the transfer of the controlling right, Longwei Media acquired the listed company through Wanjia Culture in the announcements on January 12, 2017 and February 16, 2017, with false records, misleading statements and material omissions, of which Longwei Media acquired the listed company with a shell company under the circumstance that its own domestic capital preparation was insufficient, the financing of relevant financial institutions was yet to be approved, and there was great uncertainty, and it was hastily announced. Grossly misleading to the market and investors.

The CSRC gave a warning to Huang Youlong, Zhao Wei and Kong Deyong, the actual controller of Wanjia Group, and imposed a fine of 300,000 yuan respectively; at the same time, Huang Youlong, Zhao Wei and Kong Deyong were each banned from the securities market for five years, and during the period of prohibition, they were not allowed to engage in securities business or hold the positions of directors, supervisors and senior managers of listed companies or unlisted public companies.

In addition, the prospectus released by Ant Group in 2020 shows that five limited partnerships such as Shanghai Qihong and Shanghai Jingyi hold 4.27% of ant group's shares. According to Tianyancha information, Zhao Wei's mother, Wei Qiying, served as a limited partner of shanghai qihong and shanghai jingyi funds, and then withdrew in March 2021. Both funds are managed by Shanghai Yunfeng Xinchuang Investment Management Co., Ltd., in which Ma holds a 40% stake.

In addition to the many waves in the capital market, Zhao Wei's most recent public opinion focus was due to her artist Zhang Zhehan.

Zhang Zhehan became popular because of the "Mountain and River Order" broadcast in March 2021, thus becoming one of the traffic stars, and in a short period of time, he became the hottest artist under Zhao Wei. However, recently, Zhang Zhehan's photos taken in front of the Nogi Shrine in 2019 and many times before in front of the Yasukuni Shrine were made public by netizens, triggering public criticism by xinhua news agencies, people's dailys and other media. Subsequently, a number of brands endorsed by Zhang Zhehan quickly terminated their contracts, and he was also boycotted by the whole network and "banned".