China’s Wanda to buy AMC for $2.6 billion

Dalian Wanda, a Chinese real estate conglomerate, has agreed to buy AMC Entertainment Holdings, the US cinema chain, for $2.6 billion in a deal that underscores China’s dealmaking firepower amid a flagging US economic recovery.

The deal, which is Wanda’s first in the US market, will create the world’s largest cinema operator and take the Chinese group into the heart of the US entertainment industry. Under the agreement, AMC, which has more than 5,000 movie screens in the US and Canada, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Beijing-headquartered Wanda, a privately held group whose $35bn in assets spans shopping malls and theme parks to art collections. In addition to the $2.6bn purchase price, Wanda will invest $500 million in the struggling cinema company to help strengthen AMC’s balance sheet, retire debt, and fund strategic initiatives.