Recently cash-strapped Chinese tech giant LeEco has managed to secure a $2.2bn cash injection, some of which it will use to acquire a 47.8% stake in production company Le Young Pictures.
The funding, first announced in January but now completed, came from investors including property developer Sunac China Holdings and its subsidiary Tianjin Jiarui Huixin Corporate Management Company.
The capital injection, which will be used to keep the tech company’s entertainment businesses afloat, will be distributed among Leshi Internet Information, Leshi Zhixin and Le Vision Pictures.
The Shenzhen-listed company has struggled with liquidity in recent months due to a rapid expansion strategy that included entering both the North America and India markets, with content production, streaming services and even the electric vehicles business in the US.
According to recent reports, LeEco is having a hard time closing its $2bn acquisition of US smart TV manufacturer Vizio and plans to sell its 49-acre property in Silicon Valley, which it acquired from Yahoo last year for $250m.
In regulatory filings, LeEco said it had acquired Le Young Pictures to eliminate conflicts of interest with the company’s existing entertainment activities.
Founded by actress Gan Wei, wife of LeEco founder Jia Yueting, Le Young Pictures announced earlier this year that it had raised funding from investors including CDH Fund, Shanghai-based Linmon Pictures and Le Kai Hua Fund, which gave it a valuation of around $174m (RMB1.2bn).
Le Young has produced TV series including Go Princess Go (pictured), Xuan Yuan Sword Legend: The Clouds Of Han and Dear Achimides. The company is working with Fox and Korean broadcaster KBS on a Korean-language version of Go Princess Go, about a modern playboy who travels back 1,000 years in time to find himself in the body of a royal princess.