A recent dismissal ruling by a UK court marks the conclusion of Everbright Securities' eight-year struggle involving a 5.2 billion yuan cross-border acquisition that resulted in a total loss. On April 3, 2026, Everbright Securities (601788) announced that its subsidiary Jinxin Fund's offshore project entity, JINXIN INC. (Cayman Jinxin), received a judgment from the High Court of England and Wales. The court dismissed all claims by Cayman Jinxin alleging fraudulent misrepresentation by defendants Riccardo Silva and his special purpose entities, as well as Marco Auletta, bringing an unsatisfactory end to the years-long cross-border litigation.
As early as 2021, Everbright Securities had disclosed ongoing litigation between Cayman Jinxin and former shareholders of MP & Silva Holdings S.A. (MPS), including individuals and institutions such as Riccardo Silva and Andrea Radrizzani. At that time, Cayman Jinxin sought to hold the former shareholders accountable for commercial fraud in an attempt to recover some of the 5.2 billion yuan investment loss. However, the latest UK court ruling has essentially dashed these hopes.
Everbright Securities stated in its announcement that the judgment is not expected to significantly impact the company's current or future overall operating performance. The established brokerage is overcoming the losses and difficulties from this legal defeat with strong financial results: the 2025 annual report shows the company achieved operating revenue of 10.852 billion yuan, a 13.06% year-on-year increase, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 3.724 billion yuan, up 21.77% year-on-year.
How did this copyright empire approach bankruptcy? In 2004, Riccardo Silva, Andrea Radrizzani, and Carlo Pozzali jointly founded MPS in Italy. Over the following decade, as global sports media rights markets rapidly heated up, MPS grew from an unknown small player into a significant copyright giant. At its peak, MPS operated in over 200 countries and regions, holding rights to more than 90 global sports events with partnerships involving over 30 rights organizations covering 3,500 competitions. By 2016, when acquired by Chinese capital, MPS was valued at over $1 billion.
Beneath the impressive surface, however, the company's profitability was actually weak, barely maintaining positive profits even during major sports years like 2016. More critically, at the time of acquisition, most of MPS's key sports rights were approaching expiration: Serie A and Ligue 1 rights ended in 2018, while Premier League, Arsenal Club, and F1 contracts ran through 2019, with the French Open being the longest contract extending only to 2021.
After Chinese investment entered, founders Silva and Radrizzani retained only minority stakes and no longer participated in key company decisions, transferring all important matters to the Chinese side. Subsequently, hidden problems began to emerge—the company lost its ability to pay advance payments for acquired rights, leading to massive loss of important event licenses.
In October 2017, MPS suffered a major blow when IMG took over Serie A's overseas broadcast rights. Subsequently, the company experienced losses in Bundesliga rights sales in Scandinavia. By 2018, Serie A sued MPS for approximately 38 million euros in unpaid rights fees, while unpaid bills from Bundesliga, Premier League, French Open, and F1 piled up. On October 17, 2018, in the legal dispute between the French Tennis Federation and MPS, the London High Court ruled under insolvency law that MPS must repay $6.6 million in French Open rights fees through asset liquidation.
This effectively declared MPS bankrupt, with remaining assets and income going to creditors—just two years and five months after Chinese capital acquired the company.
The acquisition occurred during the peak of Chinese overseas investment fever in 2016. Driven by State Council policy, Wanda Group acquired Swiss Infront Sports & Media for 1.05 billion euros, LeSports made a $75 million strategic investment in Lagardère Sports Asia, and newly listed Baofeng Group saw its market capitalization surge to nearly 40 billion yuan, with CEO Feng Xin setting new strategic goals around TV+VR to build sports and film content segments.
Simultaneously, Everbright Securities was undergoing special reforms. After the 2014 "8.16 Fat Finger Incident," newly appointed president Xue Feng began comprehensive business restructuring, including international market expansion. The timing aligned perfectly for both parties.
In April 2016, Everbright Jinghui (subsidiary of Everbright Capital, itself wholly owned by Everbright Securities), Baofeng Group's wholly-owned subsidiary Baofeng Investment, and Shanghai Qunchang Financial Services established Shanghai Jinxin Investment Consulting Partnership (Jinxin Fund) as general partners, with limited partners including China Merchants Bank (600036) and Huarui Bank. Everbright Capital contributed 60 million yuan as junior partner, while China Merchants Bank invested 2.8 billion yuan and Huarui Bank 400 million yuan as senior partners. The fund involved 14 enterprises with total capital reaching 5.203 billion yuan.
The parties also signed capital contribution commitment letters specifying that if senior partners couldn't exit the fund, Everbright Capital would cover corresponding payment obligations totaling approximately 3.987 billion yuan in principal and interest. This amount represented 52.14% of Everbright Securities' 2015 audited net profit, but the company failed to disclose these commitments until February 2019.
In May 2016, Jinxin Fund completed the acquisition of 65% of MPS shares for approximately 4.7 billion yuan.
The original plan called for transferring MPS to Baofeng Group within 18 months to achieve fund exit and returns. However, developments exceeded expectations—after the acquisition, MPS founders took the money and left Chinese investors with a mess. More surprisingly, MPS quickly lost rights to Serie A, Premier League and other events post-acquisition, creating serious cash flow problems.
After MPS's bankruptcy, domino effects spread rapidly. In October 2018, MPS began bankruptcy liquidation, and Jinxin Fund failed to exit as planned, resulting in total loss of the 5.2 billion yuan acquisition. That year, Everbright Securities provisioned 1.4 billion yuan in expected liabilities and 121 million yuan in asset impairment for the MPS project, reducing 2018 consolidated total profit by approximately 1.521 billion yuan and net profit by about 1.141 billion yuan. Annual net profit plummeted 96.57% to just 103 million yuan, dropping the company's industry ranking from top ten in 2015 to 38th place.
Subsequently, Everbright Securities made continued provisions for expected liabilities and asset impairment related to the matter. From 2018 to 2021, the company provisioned total expected liabilities of 5.294 billion yuan for the MPS project, representing approximately 51.83% of total profits during that period. By the end of 2021, cumulative liabilities from the MPS acquisition reached 5.284 billion yuan.
When Jinxin Fund's investment period expired in February 2019 without successful exit, interested parties China Merchants Bank and Huarui Bank filed civil lawsuits against Everbright Capital. In 2020, Shanghai Financial Court ordered Everbright Capital to pay total compensation of 3.516 billion yuan—3.116 billion yuan to China Merchants Bank and 400 million yuan investment principal to Huarui Bank. Everbright Capital appealed the first-instance judgment, but the appeal was rejected in 2021. The legal chain continued in May 2019 when Everbright Jinghui and Shanghai Jinxin sued Baofeng Group and CEO Feng Xin for "equity transfer dispute," seeking 750 million yuan in compensation.
In September 2023, Everbright Capital finally reached settlement agreements with China Merchants Bank and Huarui Bank, fulfilling all payment obligations determined by final judgments for 2.64 billion yuan. This settlement reversed approximately 2.15 billion yuan in expected liabilities, creating significant non-recurring gains that substantially impacted 2023 net profit. By the end of 2025, expected liability balance for the matter had decreased to 499 million yuan.
The impact of the MPS incident extended beyond financial dimensions, revealing serious disclosure issues. In March 2022, the Shanghai Stock Exchange publicly criticized Everbright Securities and then-chairman/president Xue Feng for three major violations: untimely disclosure of major contracts, delayed disclosure of major litigation developments, and incomplete disclosure of significant transactions. Previously, the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau had issued warning letters to the company in January 2022.
Behind regulatory accountability lay years of personnel turmoil. In April 2019, Xue Feng resigned as Everbright Securities chairman, replaced by party secretary Yan Jun. Subsequently, multiple executives including Chief Risk Officer Wang Yong, Executive President Zhou Jiannan, Compliance Director Chen Lan, and Vice President Xiong Guobing departed.
In April 2022, Everbright Group's party committee announced disciplinary actions against several executives: Chairman Yan Jun was removed from party position and demoted to deputy department head; Supervisor Liu Jiping received one-year probation within the party; President Liu Qiuming received admonishment talks. More severely, Xue Feng became embroiled in judicial investigations—in July 2021, he formally underwent organizational review and was later transferred to prosecutors for alleged dereliction of duty and accepting bribes.
With the UK High Court's April 2026 dismissal of Cayman Jinxin's fraudulent misrepresentation claims, the MPS offshore project's turbulence has finally concluded. However, the lessons from this incident for Everbright Securities and the entire securities industry remain profound. While the "MPS" case clouds may be gradually clearing, whether Everbright Securities can truly "recover" still faces dual tests of compliance and business operations.