(Yicai Global) April 8 -- The man who set up a popular finance-themed WeChat account Wu Xiaobo Channel has vowed to turn a net profit of CNY360 million (USD54 million) in three years after a CNY1.5 billion (USD223 million) offer for the company behind it attracted the scrutiny of Chinese regulators.

Best-selling financial journalist Wu Xiaobo has promised that Bajiuling Cultural Innovation will make no less than that amount, buyer Qtone Education said today in response to questions from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Shenzhen-listed Qtone Education announced its intention on March 31 to acquire a 96-percent stake in Bajiuling Cultural. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange quizzed Qtone about Wu's personal influence on the valuation and whether there was any speculation over the transaction.

Wu's personal influence is declining as the company expands its operations and influence, Qtone Education said, adding that the transaction does not represent a listing of Wu's personal intellectual property.

Qtone Education also revealed that Wu Xiaobo Channel had 3.5 million followers at the end of last year, while Deke Property Channel, operated by a unit of Bajiuling, had 250,000 fans. The two accounts are also online payment channels for the firm's knowledge-paid services and some other businesses.

Wu Xiaobo Channel had between 5,000 and 20,000 paying users a month, who coughed up CNY100 to CNY350 each time from January 2017 to last November. A total of 3,338 people attended Wu's year-end talk show and 1,413 paid for the tickets, the book income of which reached CNY2.7 million.

Bajiuling's content editing team had an average of 143 members last year, twice the number of the previous year. Of them, 48 were editors for Wu's channel and 115 were from the company's marketing team.

Bajiuling has four area of business: financial content, an entrepreneur-investor academy, a new tradesman-marketing project and paid knowledge. The book income for these stood at CNY100 million, CNY31.9 million, CNY31.3 million and CNY66.3 million, respectively, making up 44 percent, 13.8 percent, 13.5 percent and 28.6 percent, of total operating income.