(Yicai Global) Dec. 15 -- Chinese authorities gave the green light to an investment arm of Alibaba Group Holding becoming the second-largest shareholder in entertainment firm Mango Excellent Media in a CNY6.2 billion (USD946 million) deal.

The state-owned assets supervisor approved Ali Venture Capital's plan to buy almost 5.3 percent of Mango Excellent from Mango Media, the television producer and online video platform operator said in a statement yesterday.

Mango Excellent is linked with TV network Hunan Broadcasting System and owns the popular Mango TV platform. The Changsha-based company said in September that it was looking for new strategic investors, after welcoming China Mobile and China Life Insurance in 2019. Ali VC made its offer in November.

Mango Excellent has produced several popular TV shows over the past few years, and its content creation costs are relatively low. It invested a bit more than CNY6 billion in its online video and content business last year, whereas Tencent Video splurged about CNY50 billion (USD7.6 billion) for the same purpose over the three years ended 2019.

Mango Excellent’s stock price [SHE: 300413] fell 1.3 percent, ending today at CNY65.85 (USD10.06), after falling as much as 2.6 percent.

Ali VC and Mango Excellent plan to cooperate on channels, traffic and content, the entertainment firm said earlier.

Editor: Emmi Laine