大连万达鲸吞美国AMC 成全球最大电影院线公司

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Corp. has struck a deal to buy cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings, one of the year’s biggest deals by an Asian company into the U.S.

Wanda will pay $2.6 billion for the company, which is currently privately-owned by investors including Apollo Global Management, Bain Capital, Carlyle Group, CCMP Capital Advisors and Spectrum Equity Investors.

Wanda owns commercial properties across China, and has interests in hospitality and retail, including partnerships with hotel groups such as Accor, Starwood and Hilton, according to a statement from the company. It has been investing in the cultural industry since 2005, and is involved in film distribution and production. It said it made a profit of about $16.7 billion in 2007.

According to Dealogic, the deal is the largest M&A transaction in the leisure and recreation sector this year, and the fourth-largest Asia outbound M&A deal, excluding Japan, beating an investment in January by China Petrochemical Corp. into Devon Energy Corp.’s shale gas assets in the U.S. for $2.5 billion. It also lifts China outbound volume to $16.8 billion year-to-date, up 6% from the same period last year.

The deal is the latest in the movie industry between the U.S. and China. Last week, News Corp. which owns 20th Century Fox film studio, bought a 19.9% stake in one of China’s largest film distributors, Bona Film Group Ltd., directly from the firm’s founder and Chief Executive Yu dong. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In addition, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said in February it would form a joint venture with state-owned China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group Inc.

沪江英语快讯：5月21日，大连万达与全球第二大院线集团AMC签署并购协议，包括购买100%股权和承担债务两部分，并购交易金额高达26亿美元。万达集团收购AMC后，将成为全球规模最大的电影院线运营商。虽然有业界人士曾认为此次收购相当于一场“蛇吞象”的交易，但也有专家认为，这次收购对万达直接进入北美市场，在电影发行、制作上也提供了更多的可能性，也有利万达抬高股价，为上市制造题材。

延伸阅读：

美国AMC影院公司为世界排名第二的院线集团，2011年收入约25亿美元，观影人数约2亿，员工总数2万人左右。AMC公司旗下拥有346家影院，共计5028块屏幕。其中IMAX屏幕120块，3D屏幕2170块，是全球最大的IMAX和3D屏幕运营公司。AMC公司拥有的影院集中在北美大型城市中心地带，拥有北美票房最多的前50家影院中的23家。

大连万达集团创立于1988年，形成商业地产、高级酒店、旅游投资、文化产业、连锁百货五大产业。截至2011年，企业资产2200亿元，年收入1051亿元，年纳税163亿元，已经是中国民营企业的龙头企业。万达从2005年开始大规模投资文化产业，已进入中央文化区、大型舞台演艺、电影制作放映、连锁文化娱乐、中国字画收藏五个行业。万达文化产业投资已超过100亿元，成为中国文化产业投资额最大的企业。