Wanda acquires largest cinema chain in Nordic Europe

By Zhang Rui
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, January 25, 2017
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A Chinese moviegoer outside the Wanda Cinema in Beijing.



China's Dalian Wanda Group continues its buying spree, with its AMC Theatres subsidiary announcing yesterday that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the largest cinema operator in Nordic Europe, Stockholm-based Nordic Cinema Group Holding AB for US$930 million.

After acquiring Europe's largest cinema line Odeon & UCI, it is the second major acquisition AMC has made in Europe, further expanding Wanda's influence in the European film market.

Nordic has 118 cinemas and 664 screens in nearly 50 large and medium-sized cities in the Nordic and Baltic nations. Nordic's theatres are ranked number one in market share in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Norway, Latvia and Lithuania.

"For the third time in the past 12 months, we believe we have discovered a substantial acquisition that gives AMC yet another opportunity to further expand and diversify our geographic reach and more firmly establish AMC as the undisputed leader in movie exhibition worldwide," Adam Aron, AMC Entertainment CEO, said in a statement.

He added that the company is "excited by the growth potential of Nordic as it moves forward with 10 theaters already in development or re-development. We have been impressed with Nordic's talented leadership team, and further believe that their added expertise will be invaluable to us in helping to drive AMC's progress across Europe. AMC will bring additional efficiencies of scale and innovative strategic initiatives to the Nordic brands."

The combination with Nordic will result in AMC's hitting new milestones of 1,000 theatres and 11,000 screens in 15 countries, which will further strengthen AMC's current position of being the largest cinema operator in the world.

The all-cash deal needs to receive antitrust clearance from the European Commission.

The Wanda Group purchased AMC for US$2.6 billion in 2012 and continued acquiring rival chain Carmike Cinemas for US$1.1 billion in December 2016, making it the biggest movie operator in the United States, surpassing Regal Entertainment. It also made purchase of Australian cinema operator Hoyts Group for US$365.7 million in 2015.

As of now, Wanda operates 1,470 cinemas and more than 15,000 screens. After acquiring Nordic, Wanda is one step closer to reaching the goal of taking 20 percent of the world's film market.

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