Activation Group Holdings Limited (“Activation” or the “Company”, collectively, the “Group”, stock code: 9919), a provider of integrated marketing solutions in Greater China, has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Innovital Capital (“SHIVC”) to jointly establish an industry fund with a target size of 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 related business; ultimately optimize the operation layout for brand and IP establishment.
According to the memorandum of understanding, the sector fund will invest in projects that generate synergies with the Group’s core businesses as well as capitalises on the fund’s capital advantage while leveraging the resources of professional investment institutions. The fund will focus on investing in the sports culture, creative marketing, sales and marketing industries or other enterprises that create synergies with the Group’s existing businesses that are able to demonstrate its core competitiveness, high growth or tremendous growth potential, thereby creating new growth engines in accelerating the Group’s future business development.
When Activation was listed, it already planned to acquire companies that could drive its development, on top of organic growth. With the establishment of an industry fund, SHIVC agrees to make reasonable efforts and leverage its competitive edges in the PRC market to recommend and introduce invaluable resources (including government resources, cultural advertising, cultural technology and cultural real estate sectors) and investment projects proprietary to Activation so as to enable the Group’s business expansion.
A spokesperson for SHIVC said, “As we at SHIVC have the utmost confidence in Activation’s future prospects, we have recently taken a 14.42% stake in the Group to become its major shareholder. We are very pleased to further cooperate with Activation and will leverage our extensive experience and rich resources in equity investment to help the Company achieve rapid growth and further business development with an aim to achieve mutual success, and ultimately, realise our vision of nurturing a group of leading enterprises that stand out in the cultural field.”
Mr Steve LAU Kam Yiu, Joint-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Activation Group, said, “The conditions favouring digital transformation have continued to emerge. We have seen top global brands recognize and show genuine interest towards adopting the combination of online activities with offline marketing campaigns, despite having been traditionally attached to conventional ways of promotion. Looking ahead, we will capitalise on SHIVC’s network to improve the efficiency of capital use and resource mapping, as well as invest in enterprises that can generate synergies with our existing businesses in order to further enhance our digitalization strategy and optimise the operation layout for our brands and IPs, actively spearheading the Company’s development.”
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.