Chapter 487: Business upgrade

In the luxurious meeting room of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.

Lawyer Dinah Ampton laid a contract flat on the table and nodded slightly to Ronan. Ronan picked up the signature pen and signed his name at the signature place of the contract.

On the opposite side, Taku Matsubara, the president of the Long-term Credit Bank of the island country, also signed the contract.

The two stood up to exchange contracts, and then their hands were tightly clasped together.

There was warm applause in the conference room, and everyone congratulated the island nation's long-term credit once again for reaching a long-term cooperation with Pacific Film Foundation.

Matsubara Taku also smiled and said: "Mr. Anderson, your investment vision is so precise that I admire you."

Ronan also smiled: "We are responsible for every penny invested by every customer."

Both of them were very satisfied with their cooperation, smiled and shook hands again.

The pursuit of business cooperation is nothing more than profit, and both parties can achieve their own satisfaction.

After the signing ceremony, Ronan invited the long-term credit bank team headed by Matsubara Takuya to visit the Pacific Foundation, Shahai Entertainment and Relativity Entertainment, and took them to several crews filmed in Los Angeles to watch. The feast entertained the crowd.

This time, on the original basis, the two parties have reached a three-year investment cooperation agreement for a total of three phases.

But compared to the last time, under the negotiation of Scott Swift, the amount of investment per period has increased significantly.

The long-term credit bank of the island country has a minimum investment of no less than US$300 million per instalment, and there is no upper limit on the investment. For Ronan and the Pacific Film Foundation, the more investment the better.

The financing interest is the same as the previous contract.

The long-term credit banks of the island countries also come from financing, and their operating policy has always been to earn the difference between borrowing and lending.

Although the long-term credit bank of the island country has other investment businesses in North America, it is not considered successful. The cooperation with the Pacific Foundation is a rare bright spot.

In addition to this investment, the investment focus of the long-term credit bank is actually on Wall Street. According to the news that Ronan learned, this business seems to be caught in a Ponzi scheme.

Of course, it is not that some people deliberately pit long-term credit banks. Such investment institutions that frequently participate in international cooperation are completely different from companies in relatively closed countries, but they still get involved without hesitation.

There is no other reason, the high return is too attractive.

For example, some Wall Street companies have a fixed annual return on investment of 10%, which is an incredible rate of return.

Let alone shopping mall veterans and established investment companies, people who are a little bit sane know that financing companies with a fixed annual return on investment of 10% are most likely to have problems.

Don't even say 10%, the annual return on investment exceeds 5%, you must be careful.

How can these people or companies in the vertical and horizontal shopping malls do not understand such a simple truth, but the high profits always touch people's hearts, and they always firmly believe that as long as they control the timing of entering the market, someone behind them must take the order.

Then, what greeted them was a tragedy.

The island nation’s long-term credit bank’s investment in Wall Street has fallen into a Ponzi scheme, which highlights the importance of cooperation with the Pacific Film Foundation.

On the third day after signing the contract with the Long-Term Credit Bank of the island country, Ronan, on behalf of the Pacific Film Foundation, signed their respective investment cooperation agreements with several entertainment companies and investment institutions in South Korea.

The Koreans are particularly on the road, this time they also brought a few actresses, but Ronan declined.

On the one hand, these apparently artificially processed beauties look like they were carved out of a mold, and the quality is much worse than those of the three when they went to Korea.

And Ronan is now fighting with Scarlett Johansson. Although Scarlett Johansson has used knives in the nose and other parts, it can still be regarded as natural in general. He is accustomed to natural and lacks interest in artificial nature.

On the other hand, Ronan has more work at hand.

With the continuous expansion of financing channels and the further increase in the amount of financing, the investment business of the Pacific Film Foundation must be upgraded from a pure film investment fund to a financial investment fund with more extensive business.

The censorship in this area is much stricter than that of ordinary film investment foundations. With Ronan’s current conditions, it is not difficult to pass the censorship, but for some procedures, the owner of the foundation must be present in person.

The upgraded foundation can invest financing in more industries.

This is also in response to the next expansion of Relativity Entertainment.

If the company wants to develop further, it will undoubtedly need more funds.

"You have contributed to these two negotiations." Ronan also gave Scott and the foundation staff corresponding rewards: "Scott, financing cannot be relaxed. The development of Relativity Entertainment requires more funds."

Scott Swift said: "I understand. I have just contacted several investment companies in South Africa, and will fly to Johannesburg next week to continue discussions with them. In addition, the contact with the two Israeli companies has never been broken. Although they have certain doubts about us, I have the confidence to pull investment from them."

Ronan nodded slightly: "We don't care about which country the investment comes from. Arab investment is money, and Jewish investment is money. If possible, I can use Indian and Pakistani investments together."

He solemnly reminded: "But there is one thing. Scott, the source of funds must be legal. We have entered a period of stable development. Illegal funds will only cause us huge trouble."

Scott Swift said seriously: "I understand that illegal funds will not pass me in the first place."

Ronan actually knows that there are many ugly investments in the film industry. Hollywood has been slightly better in recent years. In many places where entertainment laws are not regulated, the film industry is simply a weapon for money laundering.

To involve the Pacific Foundation and Relativity Entertainment in a money laundering scandal is absolutely harmful to no benefit.

Now his company does not have to take such a risky road.

Many commercial companies, when they first started a business, always have the situation of scoring the edges, but smart people often turn to operating within the rules of the game when the company is a little stable.

Before Scott Swift left, Ronan said: "I have $15 million transferred to the personal foundation account. You continue to invest in companies such as Amazon and Apple."

"No problem." Scott agreed.

Ronan never put his eggs in a basket. His personal investment is more about asset preservation and appreciation. Although his life is also very luxurious, his monthly support is as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars, but compared to income, his The cost is not high.

Soon after Scott Swift left, Connie knocked on the door and walked in and said, "Director Ang Lee just sent someone an invitation letter. He is hosting a party in Los Angeles next month and wants to invite you to it. "

Ronan took the invitation letter from Connie, looked at the specific time, and found that there was still more than half a month, and said: "You call Li Ang, I am not sure about the schedule for the time being. It will be before the party. Give him a clear reply a week."

Connie made a note, turned and left the office.

Ronan put away the invitation letter, roughly understanding Li Ang's thoughts, sending the invitation so early, nothing more than wanting to notify him earlier, so that he has enough time to adjust his schedule.

Ang Lee’s recent days have been really difficult. To organize such a party, it is not impossible to strengthen his reputation, and listen to the meaning of the latest opinion of him as a director in the next circle.

"The Hulk" really hurt Li An's vitality.

This superhero movie is definitely a typical example of driving high and low going. After winning a fair weekend box office in the first weekend, it began to plummet all the way like the Nasdaq stock market in 2000, and it has been in theaters for more than seven weeks. The cumulative box office in North America is only $112 million.

The film's overseas box office is also very unsatisfactory. The global box office has not exceeded 200 million US dollars.

For such a top production cost of nearly 140 million U.S. dollars and a publicity and distribution expenditure of more than 70 million U.S. dollars, there is no doubt that it will fail.

Moreover, the box office is far from meeting expectations. It is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that the film’s reputation from the audience to the media to other aspects collapsed.

This will seriously affect Universal Pictures' offline operation of "Hulk".

Like this kind of commercial production with a disastrous box office reputation, which TV station will pay a high price for the TV broadcast rights? Who can expect DVD release to get impressive data?

Ang Lee's pressure can be imagined.

It can even be said that this film makes Ang Lee not a person inside and outside.

Universal Pictures had opinions on Ang Lee. The crew led by Eric Barna accused Ang Lee. Fans believed that Ang Lee was taken over by Oscar and irresponsibly made a bad film. Hulk comics fans reportedly directly Sent a letter of protest to Ang Lee.

Ronan also received a private message from Avi Allard from Marvel Comics If Shahai Entertainment uses Ang Lee as the director to shoot Marvel superhero movies, Marvel comics will be released. The strongest public protest.

Fortunately, Ronan never had the idea of ​​letting Li Ang direct a purely commercial production.

Ronan can let Li Ang make a film with a cost of 20 million US dollars. He has such a value, but when the investment is high, it must be limited.

The knock on the door sounded again, and this time it was Scarlett Johansson.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Scarlett Johansson was still carrying a briefcase, as if there was an official business to discuss.

"I didn't interrupt your work, did you?" Scarlett Johansson pulled away the chair and sat opposite Ronan, and said with a grin: "I have something to do with you. Do me a small favor."

Ronan nodded: "Go ahead."

Scarlett Johansson opened the briefcase, took out a script from it, and directly pushed it to Ronan: "I received an invitation, a commercial film, the heroine. But I'm not sure whether to pick it up, can you help me see it? "