China’s Wanda Eyes Theater Chain IPO

HONG KONG — Wanda Cinema Line, China’s largest movie theaters group, is planning to float its shares on the Shenzhen stock market.

According to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the company plans to sell some 60 million shares and raise up to RMB2 billion ($322 million).

The company’s preliminary prospectus reveals that in 2013 the chain had net revenues of $645 million (compared with $484 million the previous year) and that it delivered net profits of $97 million, compared with $62.7 million in 2012.

At the end of 2013, Wanda operated 142 multiplexes in 72 cities.

Wanda Cinema Line, substantially owned by China’s riches businessman Wang Jianlin and his son, is part of the same Dalian Wanda group that in 2011 acquired US multiplex group AMC Cinemas. Wang returned AMC to the stockmarket through a NYSE listing in December 2013.

At the end of last week the CSRC also revealed that Shanghai Film Group is also on its list of forthcoming IPOs. The company, a distributor and cinema operator, aims to raise RMB969 million ($156 million).

Dalian Wanda has also expanded into film production and distribution and last September announced the building of a massive studio-festival-theme park complex in the coastal city of Qingdao.

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