Meitu founder Cai Wensheng acquires controlling stake in China Financial Leasing and plans to build an AI+Web3 investment holding platform

China Financial Leasing (2312.HK) recently announced that the company's original shareholders Lin Shusong and Capital Venture Capital Co., Ltd. have transferred a total of 121 million shares to an independent third party, Longling Capital, for a total transaction price of HK$46.08 million, accounting for approximately 34.96% of the company's total share capital. Longling Capital is actually ultimately beneficially owned by Cai Wensheng, the founder and largest shareholder of Meitu.

According to the announcement, Longling Capital will make a full acquisition offer to all shareholders of China Financial Leasing, with a price of HK$0.38 per share in cash, a premium of 13.43% over the company's share price before suspension (HK$0.335). It is estimated that the total amount of capital involved in this offer is approximately HK$85.74 million.

The announcement also clearly stated that after the completion of the full offer, Cai Wensheng has no intention of revoking the company's listing status on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and will maintain its public company status.

This acquisition is regarded by the market as an important layout of Cai Wensheng's investment strategy. It is disclosed that Cai Wensheng plans to transform China Financial Leasing into an asset management platform with an international vision, and focus on investing in local technology incubators in Hong Kong, increasing investment in artificial intelligence (AI), Web3, digital asset financial products and other fields. He hopes to build the company into a diversified investment holding group that is "future-oriented" to capture the growth dividends of global emerging industries.

Cai Wensheng started with Meitu and has been active in the blockchain and Web3 ecosystems in recent years. He has invested in NFTs, digital wallets and AI generative platforms many times. This acquisition of a traditional financial leasing company through Longling Capital and plans to transform it into a technology and digital asset investment platform shows its strategic intention to further focus on the intersection of "technology + capital".

In addition, as the Hong Kong government continues to promote the regulatory framework and ecological construction of cutting-edge technologies such as virtual assets, Web3 and AI, China Financial Leasing's unique identity in the Hong Kong capital market also provides the possibility for the platform to land in the construction of digital financial infrastructure in the future.