China Media Capital Launches $950 Million CMC Capital Partners III Fund

By Annie Baker ● Feb 14, 2020
  • China-based venture capital firm China Media Capital has launched a $950 million fund called CMC Capital Partners III Fund

China Media Capital, a China-based venture capital firm led by Li Ruigang, has launched a $950 million third fund called CMC Capital Partners III according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission discovered by Variety. The SEC documents show that the Cayman Island-registered fund had raised $153.5 million from investors in the U.S., which was managed by Credit Suisse.

CMC now runs two RMB funds and three USD funds. The second dollar fund had sold $182 million to U.S. investors and $366 million to investors outside of the U.S.

Ruigang used to be the head of Shanghai Media Group. And Ruigang is known as one of the best-connected Chinese executives in Hollywood along with the politicians in Beijing. With his connections, he has been building up a media empire ranging from movie production to smart TV devices. Some of the firm’s shareholders include Alibaba, Tencent and China Vanke.

In partnership with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Dreamworks, Ruigang and CMC had launched a China-based animation joint venture company called Oriental Dreamworks. And with Warner Bros, CMC launched a film production venture called Flagship Entertainment. A couple of years ago, Oriental Dreamworks became a wholly CMC-owned property called Pearl Studio ― which released “Abominable” last year.

Within the U.S., CMC is a minority shareholder of Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency and it has a holding in Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment. And in Asia, CMC has a stake in Hong Kong’s free-to-air broadcaster TVB and the Shaw Brothers film studio.

CMC Holdings had recently announced it was selling a 25% stake in BaseFX. BaseFX is getting acquired by Sunac Culture.