'China's Rupert Murdoch' exits as Shanghai Media Group chief
Li Ruigang expected to redirect energies back to major investment fund China Media Capital
Li Ruigang, the Shanghai-based media kingpin dubbed by some industry insiders as "China's Rupert Murdoch", may refocus his attention on his pet media investment fund after quitting as the top executive of the city's biggest media conglomerate.
Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the mainland's second-largest media conglomerate by revenue, said in a statement yesterday that Li had stepped down as group president but would stay on as chairman.
Li is the chairman of the government-backed China Media Capital (CMC) fund, which has investments in companies ranging from influential domestic news outlet Caixin to foreign entertainment company IMAX, as well as Star China TV.
"He voluntarily requested the city authorities to remove him from the post of president," a source with knowledge of the matter said. "It paves the way for his complete departure from SMG in the near future."
Li, 46, was chief of SMG between 2002 and 2011 before he was promoted to deputy secretary general of Shanghai's Communist Party committee.
In 2009, he founded the CMC investment fund, attracting 5 billion yuan (HK$6.3 billion) in initial capital from the likes of China Development Bank and SMG.
According to three state-owned media officials in Shanghai, Shanghai party boss Han Zheng invited Li to return to SMG early last year, with high hopes that the open-minded technocrat could map out a long-term development strategy for the media giant for the digital era.
