China's DMG Entertainment seeks to buy 10% of Forbes
DMG Entertainment, the Chinese-founded media company, is reported to be seeking a 10% stake in US business magazine Forbes. Under a complex deal, DMG's affiliate Yinji Entertainment & Media would create a $256m investment fund with several partners to make the investment in Forbes through another new company. Forbes is currently 95%-owned by Whale Media Investments in Hong Kong, which acquired its controlling state for $415m in 2014. The price for the proposed deal hasn't been disclosed, and neither party has commented on the reports.

DMG Entertainment’s Chinese affiliate has offered to buy a 10 percent stake in Forbes, the U.S. business magazine and media company.

Along with the minority stake, DMG would acquire “greater China rights” to the Forbes brand in the proposed deal, helping to fulfill the company’s vision of “creating a global, high-level concept entertainment brand,” according to a stock market filing from DMG’s mainland Chinese affiliate Yinji Entertainment & Media.

The filing, issued Tuesday, explains that Yinji is using a Hong Kong-based, DMG-branded entity to establish a $256 million investment fund with several partners. The fund would then be deployed to acquire full control of an entity called FBS Entertainment and Leisure, which in turn would make the Forbes investment, according to the filing. It wasn’t immediately clear how much it would spend on the Forbes deal.

Forbes’ current controlling stakeholder is Integrated Whale Media Investments, an asset management firm based in Hong Kong, which acquired 95 percent of the publisher for $415 million in 2014. Earlier this year HNA Group, the acquisitive Chinese conglomerate, made a failed attempt to buy a controlling stake in Forbes for over $400 million.

DMG and Forbes couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

DMG Entertainment, which began as a Chinese marketing company before diversifying into film and television, was reorganized in 2014, splitting into two parts. Yinji Entertainment & Media, which retained the company’s flagship advertising and marketing business, and remains its chief revenue driver, was brought to market on the Shenzhen stock exchange via a reverse takeover, with co-founder Peter Xiao taking the helm as chairman. The company’s American co-founder and CEO, Dan Mintz, meanwhile, assumed control of the company’s privately held U.S. entertainment assets, retaining the name DMG Entertainment and basing in Los Angeles.

Although technically separate, which allows them latitude in negotiating U.S. and Chinese financial and media regulations, the two companies operate under a contractual partnership agreement.

DMG Entertainment’s next U.S. film release will be Bastards, starring Owen Wilson and Ed Helms, and produced in partnership with Alcon Entertainment.