The Wanda Group has sold “most” of its remaining shares in AMC Entertainment. AMC made the announcement Friday. Furthermore, the movie theatre chain took the opportunity to praise Wanda.
The shares were sold through open market trading. AMC says, at last county, they have more than 3 million individual shareholders. Secondly, no one single entity owns more than 10% of the firm.
Wanda acquired all of AMC in 2012, and took the Company public through a 2013 IPO while still retaining a majority of AMC’s total outstanding shares.
“Wanda has been a terrific shareholder of AMC for almost a decade. Under their ownership, AMC became the biggest movie theater operator in the world. Importantly, Wanda also has supported our reinvesting billions of dollars to upgrade and enhance our network of theatres for the benefit of moviegoers throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. I salute Wanda for the immensely constructive role they played in building our company, and want to express my sincerest appreciation and affection for their wise counsel and friendship.”
AMC CEO and President Adam Aron
Wanda Film Group owns the largest movie theatre circuit in China. It also has theatres in Australia and produces Chinese-language films. Meanwhile, AMC is the biggest movie theatre chain in the U.S. and Europe. AMC also has theatres in the Middle East. Therefore, the two companies will “enter a long term strategy and cooperation agreement.”
