新闻报道

Posted on: 15th September, 2017

When Victory Hill Exhibitions (wholly-owned Subsidiary of Cityneon Holdings) launched its first Avengers S.T.A.T.I.0.N in New York, its chief executive officer Ron Tan feared that the company was simply not cut out for the job. “I nearly lost everything in our first exhibition in New York. I totally underestimated the scale of this project,” he shares. “I had only three full-time staff and over a hundred part-time contractors. And we were going to transform 20,000 sq ft of space by ourselves.”

Three years after that first exhibition, Tan just smiles at the memory and all the hardships. “Marvel came by seventeen times and didn’t allow us to open at first. I guess we didn’t look like we can deliver what we said we will deliver then” he says.

After Cityneon Holdings acquired Victory Hill Exhibitions, it transformed Cityneon into a $250 million favorite at the Singapore Stock Exchange. “The new business created a brand new dimension for Cityneon. Look at Avengers S.T.A.T.l.O.N.,” Tan says. “There is only one brand in the whole world. Media companies want content; they want real high end content. We are a content company, and when we entered Singapore we had zero execution risk. Because of our products, we don’t really compete for a share of the consumers’ wallet.”

Reinventing a legacy business

Cityneon started out as a family-run supplier of electrical appliances in 1956. Within a few years of its inception, the company expanded its business to include the design and installation of shop displays and retail fronts. This marked the start of its journey to transforming customer touch points into holistic brand experiences, culminating in the incorporation of Cityneon Displays and Construction.

By the early 70s, the group clinched a partnership with the Australian Trade Commission to erect booths and provide logistical support for their “Made in Australia” marquis exhibition – the first of its kind to be hosted in Singapore. It proved to be the turning point for the company, as it enabled Cityneon to showcase its creative prowess at an international stage, thus opening doors to new frontiers.

Today, the company is known as Cityneon Holdings Limited – a full service ideas agency specialising in transforming customer and brand experiences, encompassing four independent yet integrated business divisions. These divisions are Interior Architecture, Experiential Environments, Events and Exhibitions.

Perfecting the craft

The group has made its name building theme parks across the Asia Pacific and constructing expo pavilions in several parts of the Middle East.

According to Tan, the group was involved by being one of the agencies appointed in creating the aesthetics of the major theme parks. Tan is also proud of their office in Bahrain which specializes in expo pavilions. This office, Tan proudly shares, has never failed to deliver a profit. The company also has projects in Oman and Qatar.

These pavilions are pretty exciting, and they’re all government-run projects. There are big expos happening in 2020 in Dubai, and we’re really looking forward to that,” the CEO notes.

Apart from working with industry giants, the group is also focusing a lot of its energy and creativity on interior architecture. “We have a big project with the Brunei Palace for the interior design of one of their palaces. We also have a couple of big projects in Vietnam; we’re working with international hotel chains such as Sheraton and we also worked with RWS Singapore. We are in charge of the interiors of their hotels there,” Tan notes.

Aside from major hotels, the group also handles logistics for sports events. It has long been a mainstay at Formula 1 in Singapore, and it has also worked for locally­ held international events such as the Asian Games, Youth Olympics, and the Southeast Asian Games. Cityneon Holdings Limited also handled the Youth Olympics in Nanjing.

“These are the five business segments of Cityneon today,” Tan says, in reference to the aforementioned projects. “These are what we call the four traditional businesses. We also have what we call new frontiers, such as the intellectual property businesses. This was born from our long engagement with major studios such as Marvel and Hasbro. Those businesses need a lot of support from the old businesses. There’s a lot of the old and new coming together. That chemistry allows us to propel this new business to where it is today,” Tan notes.

Victory Hill Exhibitions (VHE)

In 2015, Cityneon acquired Victory Hill Exhibitions, a widely successful immersive attractions company that focuses on delivering visual-appealing, engaging, educational and interactive “ready-to­-showcase” exhibitions, designed to wow viewers’ senses. Both Cityneon and Victory Hill Exhibitions are recognized as leaders in their respective industries.

“Intellectual property for the Avengers S.T.A.T.I.0.N. belongs to us until 2024. We produced everything from scratch, and we launched our first exhibition in New York. From there we went to Seoul, then to Paris, Las Vegas, Singapore, Beijing and Taipei,” Tan says. Victory Hill Exhibitions (VHE) has also opened an Avengers S.T.A.T.I.0.N. recently, just within the month of May 2017. They are also looking to open an Avengers S.T.A.T.I.0.N. in far west of Europe next year.

While other media companies despair over viewers’ increasingly shorter attention spans, Tan believes that Cityneon’s strength lies precisely in the experience that they offer to their clients.

“We are not an exhibition company,” he stresses. “Nobody pays to enter an exhibition; they pay for the experience. The whole Avengers S.T.A.T.I.0.N. is about experience. You are part of a world which is under attack. It is the experience that matters.”

Staying ahead of the pack

“In the space of a year, the company has grown over ten times, transforming from a $20 million company to a $250 million company. It’s pretty amazing. Even our old shareholders are thrilled,” Tan shares.

Cityneon’s transformation has allowed it to explore new ground and leave its former competitors behind. “We used to put in a tender for jobs, then we wait, then we pray. But those business models don’t work anymore. Any project that requires a tender results in a price competition. At the end of the day, no one wins,” Tan says.

When Tan came to the helm, he realized that the only way to move forward was to manage the company’s ballooning overhead costs. He was determined to cut them.

“We are in an economy that is quite tight. This is the reason why we decided to cut our overhead costs. When I first came into this company our overhead costs were $25 million. It went down to about $19 million; now we have cut it to $15 million. This allowed us to pick and choose projects with higher margins. I’ve never been a fan of tendering for projects,” he notes.

The secret to success

Tan knows that Cityneon’s success relies on the strength of its products. While popularity is beyond the company’s control, the fact that it is backed by two of the world’s best studios puts them at an advantage. To ensure profitability and sustainability, the company only selects movies which have grossed over $1 billion worldwide and have guaranteed sequels. For Cityneon, product is king, and their projects speak for their triumph as a brand.

Cityneon’s success was recognized this year at the Singapore Business Review Awards. In a gala night held at the Conrad Centennial Singapore last June 08, Cityneon Holdings won a National Business Award in the Diversified Services category for their execution of the project “Sultanate of Oman National Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015”.

Their subsidiary Victory Hill Exhibitions dominated the Media and Entertainment category at the International Business Awards . They were lauded for their immersive attraction exhibition, “Avengers S.T.A.T.I.0.N.’ that boasts of its visual appeal, educational content and entertainment value. This is Victory Hill Exhibitions’ first International Business Award.

Posted on: 31st August, 2017

Getting up close and personal with the dinosaurs of Jurassic World is now closer to home.

The major spectacle, inspired by the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park franchise, now belongs to Cityneon Holdings, a creator of innovative and interactive exhibitions in Singapore.

The mainboard-listed company has acquired full global rights to Jur­assic World Exhibition when it entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire all of JP Exhibitions LLC for US$25 million.

The move allows Cityneon to make full use of the exhibition’s intellectual property (IP) rights in partner­ship with global movie titan Universal Studios, it announced in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday evening.

Jurassic World: The Exhibition is a licensed spin-off from the blockbuster movie Jurassic World, and it brings dinosaurs to life through life-size animatronic and com­puter-generated imagery (CGI) ef­fects.

The latest purchase is Cityneon’s third IP acquisition and association with a blockbuster movie franchise. The first two were Disney’s Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.0.N. and Hasbro’s Transformers Autobot Alliance.

The Jurassic World Exhibition ac­quisition also came in the wake of Lucrum 1 Investment’s procurement of 52.5 per cent of Cityneon shares from its previous major shareholder for about US$85 million in July.

It made Lucrum 1, a consortium led by executive chairman and group CEO of Cityneon Ron Tan, the group’s largest shareholder.

With this latest acquisition, Cityneon is able to bring a multi-sens­ory dinosaur experience to “even more markets around Asia and the rest of the world”, Mr Tan said.

He said Cityneon has always “sought to engage audiences with rich, hands-on experiences that resonate with their interests and aspira­tions”.

“With Jurassic World: The Exhibition, we affirm once again our com­mitment to offer all our visitors a stir­ring, unforgettable, interactive experi­ence,” he said, adding that the group will begin to construct a second im­mersive experience set immediately.

Vice-president of live entertainment at Universal Brand Development Carol Nygren said: “With the continued global strength of the Jurassic World brand, we’re devoted to bringing the exhibition to fans worldwide and seeing their excitement to be immersed in the world of Jurassic dino­saurs.”

Tom Zaller, manager of JP Exhibi­tions and president of Imagine Exhibitions, added: “This new relationship with Cityneon offers a great promise for all parties involved; Cityneon un­derstands the industry and has the ability to expand on the incredible success of the exhibition.”

Jurassic World: The Exhibition was developed in close collaboration with renowned palaeontologist Jack Horner, who served as the adviser on Jurassic World, the movie.

The exhibition is imbued with in­teractive educational elements, in­spired by the real-world science of di­nosaur DNA that allowed Jurassic World to come to life. Visitors will ex­plore a towering brachiosaurus, come face-to-face with a velociraptor, and get a rare up-close look at the most vi­cious dinosaur of them all, the tyran­nosaurus rex.

Posted on: 30th August, 2017

Event and exhibition services provider Cityneon Holdings is making its third intellectual property (IP) acquisition by purchasing a 100% stake in JP Exhibitions from its owners for US$25 million ($34 million).

This will grant the company IP rights to Jurassic World: The Exhibition – a licensed spin-off from the blockbuster movie, Jurassic World – in partnership with Universal Studios Licensing.

JP Exhibitions secured the rights to Jurassic World: The Exhibition through a global licence between Imagine Exhibitions and Universal Licensing, and has been touring the exhibition since 2016.

The exhibition is expected to hit the 1 million visitor milestone in Chicago, US, where it is currently based until Jan 7 next year.

In a press release on Wednesday, Cityneon says the acquisition, which it intends to fund with existing cash and bank borrowings, also marks the group’s third time being associated a blockbuster movie franchise.

Previously, the company acquired the IP rights to Disney’s Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. and launched the attraction in seven cities across three continents. It also owns the rights to Hasbro’s Transformers Autobot Alliance, which is scheduled to be premiered in mainland China in end 2017.

“We are thrilled to be part of Universal Studio’s Jurassic World franchise, and we can’t wait to bring this immersive attraction to even more markets, around Asia and the rest of the world,” says Ron Tan, executive chairman and group CEO of Cityneon.

“To enable Jurassic World – The Exhibition to reach even more people, we will begin to construct a second immersive experience set immediately,” he adds.

Shares in Cityneon closed 3 cents higher at $1.01 on Wednesday.

Posted on: 3rd April, 2017

Sure, it’s a tough job being a member of The Avengers, fending off super-villains hell-bent on taking over the world and destroying major cities while they’re at it.

But have you ever tried putting on an exhibition about The Avengers in New York?

“It was a nightmare,” recounts Cityneon chief executive Ron Tan, the veritable superhero who has indeed pulled off such a feat and lived to tell the tale. “Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.”

Mr Tan, 46, is the man behind Marvel’s Avengers Station, a high-tech interactive exhibition where fans of the movie franchise can learn more about the characters’ back stories, view film props and costumes and even undergo physical tests to see if they can become one of The Avengers too.

The exhibition, which recently ended its run in Singapore, first debuted in New York in 2013, and has since travelled to Seoul, Paris and Las Vegas. It is set to open in China, Taiwan and Australia later this year.

Avengers Station has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors across the world with the backing of Marvel, which is owned by global behemoth Disney.

NIGHTMARE PROJECT

“We took up 50,000 sq ft of space in Valencia, California, to build the exhibition, which was going to debut in New York. We built everything ourselves. It was a nightmare because we’d never built anything of this scale before. We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of U-turns, blew the budget and couldn’t open on time.” MR RON TAN, Cityneon chief executive, on how everything that could go wrong, did go wrong when he and his colleagues tried to build the first The Avengers Station.

And it all began with Mr Tan and two friends, who dreamed up the idea for The Avengers Station in Singapore in 2011. His inspiration, he said, was Cirque du Soleil.

“In 2008, I picked up a book about Cirque du Soleil and (read about) how its founder, Guy Laliberte, transformed the whole circus industry,” he said.

“He was the first person to put on a human-only circus. People thought he was crazy for not including any animals in his circus. Instead, he used music and stories, on which each show was based. What he did was amazing – Cirque du Soleil, in its heyday, had up to 12 installations along the Las Vegas strip alone at any one time.”

Mr Tan wanted to do something similar in the exhibition business, by tapping the intellectual property and brand cache of a global franchise and conjuring up an immersive live experience for fans.

“And so, like Cirque du Soleil, we started with a script. When you visit The Avengers Station, you are a recruit. You are told: ‘The world is under attack. Are you ready to defend Earth alongside The Avengers?’ ” he said.

“You are given a recruit card. But in order to join the team of superheroes, you have to learn more about your partners. So at every station, you learn why Bruce Banner turns into the Incredible Hulk when he’s angry, why Captain America could be frozen for so many years, and so on. Then you take tests and once you pass the tests, you are welcomed as a member of The Avengers family and you can buy a membership card.”

He and his friends thought they had come up with a brilliant idea. There was only one small catch – they did not actually know anyone at Marvel or its parent company Disney, to give them the rights to make their idea come to life.

But no matter – through sheer determination and “six degrees of connections”, they got to the right people and made their big pitch. Long story short, Marvel and Disney liked the idea and gave them a shot.

“It was a blessing. Imagine – this giant corporation gave us the right to represent one of their brands. The guy who signed that contract could have lost his job if something went wrong. At the time, our company was so small. In fact, we didn’t even have a company. There were three of us and an idea,” Mr Tan recalled.

The three officially formed a company, Victory Hill Exhibitions (VHE), once they got the formal contract. And then came the hard part. “We took up 50,000 sq ft of space in Valencia, California, to build the exhibition, which was going to debut in New York. We built everything ourselves. It was a nightmare because we’d never built anything of this scale before. We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of U-turns, blew the budget and couldn’t open on time.”

Executives from Marvel and Disney checked in on the project 17 times before it opened, to make sure everything was up to their standards.

“When we finally opened I thought the nightmare was over but I was wrong. Screens were not working, interactive exhibits were not working, and so on. I was here in Singapore and had to handle these technical issues that I didn’t know how to handle. It was a lot of firefighting. We just didn’t have the infrastructure to deal with all the issues.”

Still, the exhibition was deemed a big success overall and received rave reviews, including from comic-book writer and former Marvel Comics chairman Stan Lee. It was set to go places.

In late 2014, Mr Tan was introduced to Cityneon and about a year later, the Singapore-listed firm bought over VHE.

Some entrepreneurs may baulk at the idea of selling a company just four years after its founding but Mr Tan said the confluence of opportunities was too hard to resist.

“We were talking to Hasbro at that point in time and Hasbro holds the intellectual property rights to Transformers. They liked what we had done with The Avengers, and so the opportunity was there for us to do something with Transformers. To make it happen, we needed more money,” he said.

“We were approached at the same time by a company that wanted to take The Avengers experience to Las Vegas, and that deal required a capital investment. That opportunity couldn’t wait for me. Finally, I also saw an opportunity there because Cityneon is the kind of company that should be building Avengers Station sets.”

The takeover has worked out for all parties. Cityneon has since grown its market capitalisation from less than $20 million in 2014 to over $200 million today. And VHE has the tools and funds it needs to execute its events at the scale needed.

“Now, we have the infrastructure, systems and money to grow. Now, I have a chief technology officer to handle any technical issues that crop up. I don’t get a single call now about tech,” Mr Tan said, laughing.

Cityneon’s previous managing director Ko Chee Wah retired in July last year, and Mr Tan was appointed group chief executive officer in January.

He is excited about the journey ahead, even as the firm is facing some challenges. Given the uncertain economic climate, it is streamlining and is cutting 50 staff across Asia, as part of efforts to slash operating expenses by $4 million this year. After the cuts, the firm will have about 200 staff globally.

With rights to The Avengers and Transformers, Cityneon now has two of the world’s largest pop culture icons under its belt.

“We are looking at acquiring a third intellectual property. We have two criteria that we set – the movie should perform above US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion) globally so that we know there’s a global demand. And it should have sequels so that there’s sustainable demand,” Mr Tan said.

The options are limited. There are fewer than 20 films that meet those criteria, and movies from The Avengers and Transformers stables make up 10 of them.

The firm, which built Universal Studios Singapore, is also making strong headway in its theme-park business, and is focusing on clinching more theme-park construction projects in North Asia. Again, the focus here is on theme parks backed by an international brand, Mr Tan said.

Despite the economic climate, the path ahead still looks very exciting, he said. “From where we were at VHE, to where we are right now, it’s been a huge leap. At Cityneon, we are still a very small company. We are a growth company.”

Posted on: 14th October, 2016

Cityneon Holdings’ Victory Hill Exhibitions (VHE) is all ready for the soft launch of its Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. exhibition in Singapore on Oct 28.

“Excitement [is] building up ahead of the Singapore launch,” says UOB Kay Hian lead analyst Nicholas Leow in a Friday report. “So far, we understand the ticketing pre-sales for the Singapore event have been very strong.”

UOB is keeping Cityneon on “buy” with a target price of $1.15, in anticipation of what is likely to be a blockbuster year ahead for the company.

“Cityneon is well-positioned to grow as it embarks on entertaining a generation of superhero fans,” Leow says.

In addition, Leow says the Group’s earnings could be driven by several avenues, including more exhibition sets, new intellectual property (IP) rights and penetration of new markets such as China.

Cityneon has indicated that it will double the number of its exhibition sets from four in 2016 to eight in 2018.

Meanwhile, the company is adding to its creative team headcount in the US, suggesting the potential for more IP rights.

“The creative team is one of the key factors to Cityneon’s success and we think a larger team is a solid indicator of its growth plans,” Leow says.

Apart from adding more IPs from Disney, Leow believes Cityneon could consider other IPs such as DC Comics and Star Wars.

As at 12.26pm, Cityneon is trading 1.7% higher at 91.5 cents.

Posted on: 13th June, 2016

China Media Capital CMC Holdings, a Chinese private equity and venture capital firm, has invested $16 million in Singapore firm Cityneon.

Cityneon operates in four business segments: Experiential Environment, Interior architecture, Exhibition services and Event management. China Media Capital (CMC) is a private equity and venture capital firm specializing in growth capital, mid venture, late venture, emerging growth, corporate restructuring, management buyouts, and mergers & acquisitions. The firm prefers to invest in the cultural, technology, media, entertainment, consumer, medical treatment, and telecommunication sectors. It prefers to invest in and outside China. China Media Capital was founded in 2009 and is based in Shanghai, China with an additional office in Beijing, China.

To see a list of investors from China similar to China Media Capital, check the Chinese Investors Directory.

Posted on: 15th May, 2016

新华网上海5月13日电（记者许晓青）华人文化控股集团（CMC）13日宣布，华人文化已于近日入股新加坡上市公司“城贸控股”（Cityneon）。此次增发及配售将待新加坡证券交易所最终审批通过。

城贸控股成立于1956年，是世界领先的文化旅游、现场主题娱乐创意概念开发及建造公司，此外在产业链上下游拥有环境体验, 室内建筑工程、活动策划管理、会展服务等综合协同业务。城贸控股旗下VHE公司目前已成功为环球影城、漫威、三星、孩之宝、F1世界一级方程式锦标赛、美国国家航空航天局（NASA）等在内的全球合作伙伴提供了包括创意、设计、开发和建造等在内的现场主题娱乐领域的服务。

华人文化董事长黎瑞刚表示：“消费升级和互联网正在推动中国的现场娱乐产业经历一场深刻的变革，中国消费者对于产品、服务和体验都有着越来越高的要求，这个领域有着惊人的发展潜力，也将有世界级的公司诞生在中国。此次对CityNeon/VHE的投资是华人文化在这一领域布局的加强，对华人文化在现场娱乐领域战略性综合实力的提高具有积极意义。双方将携手为中国、乃至亚洲及全球的消费者带来更多充满创新创意的现场主题娱乐体验。”

近年来，华人文化在电影、电视、动画、演艺、音乐、体育、游戏、互联网、艺人经纪、粉丝经济、智能终端、虚拟现实、电子票务、广告营销、媒体消费及金融数据服务、潮流及奢侈品电商、现场娱乐等领域投资和运营了一大批知名企业。