November 23 2007

Film Mogul Run Run Shaw Turns 100, Considers Retiring
By Mark Lee
BLOOMBERG

Run Run Shaw, the Hong Kong tycoon who made the first Asian film to win a top prize at Cannes, turns 100 today. He may be considering retirement.

Shaw, who founded the world’s largest Chinese-language television producer, made more than a thousand films, starting in 1920s Shanghai, near his birthplace Ningbo.

By the 1960s, Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Ltd. was Asia’s biggest producer of movies, including “The Magnificent Concubine,” which took the Grand Prix at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. The studio’s decline a decade later may have begun with the failure to sign Bruce Lee in 1970 - Shaw then focused his efforts on TV.

Known as Sir Run Run after Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 1977, Shaw may sell control of Television Broadcasts Ltd., operator of Hong Kong’s largest television station, and retire as chairman, Citigroup Inc. analyst Catherine Leung said. Investors may offer more than the market price for Shaw’s stake in the Hong Kong TV company, she said.

Shaw may retire this year when he turns 100, the South China Morning Post reported on May 31, citing his wife Mona Fong.

“This is a personal decision for the chairman and the company is not in a position to comment,” Television Broadcasts spokeswoman Winnie Ho said last month.

Film Library

Shaw celebrates his birthday today, said William Pfeiffer, chief executive officer of Celestial Pictures Ltd., which bought most of Shaw Brothers’ film library in 2000.

“Countless directors have been influenced by Shaw Brothers films,” said Pfeiffer. The library bought by Celestial, a unit of Kuala Lumpur-based Astro All Asia Networks Plc, has 760 films. Shaw declined to be interviewed.

Actor Michael Wong said Shaw was one reason he moved to Hong Kong in 1983 from the U.S. to begin his film career.

“They are the kind of people you dream to be around,” said Wong, who starred in more than 60 films, including “Whatever You Want,” a 1994 Shaw Brothers production. “I have been inspired by him.”

Shaw’s companies in Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong made more than 1,000 movies, with annual production peaking at 50 pictures in 1974, according to Chao Lan and Youpeng Zhan’s 1997 biography of the film mogul.

Chinese Calendar

Shaw observes the Chinese calendar and celebrates his birthday today, Pfeiffer said. Today is the 14th day of the 10th month in the Chinese lunar year. Shaw was born in November 1907, said Rita Gourlay, a Hong Kong-based secretariat at his company Shaw Foundation.

The 32.5 percent stake Shaw controls in TVB, as Television Broadcasts is known, is worth HK$5.96 billion ($766 million) based on the TV company’s share price of HK$41.9 today. His 74.9 percent stake in Shaw Brothers is valued at HK$4.27 billion. His Hongkong Shaw Foundation has donated $390 million to projects including schools and hospitals since 1973, according to its Web site.

TVB Growth

Shaw Brothers leased most of its filmmaking facilities to TVB in 1983, after Shaw became chairman of the TV company in 1980. He built TVB into a company with channels broadcast in 30 markets including the U.S., Canada and Taiwan, making it the world’s largest producer of Chinese-language programs, according to its Web site.

TVB had 80 percent of Hong Kong’s viewers and 78 percent of the city’s TV advertising market last year, said Vivek Couto, executive director at Media Partners Asia Ltd., a Hong Kong-based research company.

Golden Harvest Entertainment Holdings Ltd. overtook Shaw Brothers in box-office receipts in 1975, according to the biography of Shaw. Raymond Chow, Shaw Brothers’ top executive until he founded Golden Harvest in 1970, offered $7,500 a film to sign martial arts star Lee, beating the $3,000 offered by Shaw, according to the biography.

Chow’s departure from Shaw Brothers was prompted by a disagreement with Fong, hired by Shaw in 1969, Lan and Zhan wrote. Fong took over Chow’s role at Shaw Brothers. Shaw married Fong in 1997, 10 years after his first wife, Lily, died.