AMC to buy Nordic Cinema Group

AMC Entertainment Inc signage is displayed outside the company's movie theater in West Chester, Ohio, US, on Saturday, July 30, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc said it would buy Nordic Cinema Group, the largest cinema chain in the Nordic and Baltic countries, for 6.37 billion yuan ($930 million), The Paper reported.

The announcement came after AMC, majority-owned by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin's Dalian Wanda Group, purchased UK-based Odeon & UCI Cinemas for $1.2 billion in November.

Nordic Cinema has 118 theaters and 463 screens in about 50 cities in the Nordic and Baltic regions. After the purchase, AMC would have 1,000 theaters with 11,000 screens in 15 countries in North America and Europe.

The acquisition will see Wanda expand its global footprint even further and put Wang a step closer to his goal. Wang earlier said the group wants to own 20 percent of all cinemas in the world within 10 years.

Since Wanda was founded in 1988, the group has become China's largest commercial property company. It has also expanded into cinemas, sports clubs and finance.

Wang said at an internal company annual meeting that Wanda's revenue from culture business has exceed 25 percent of the total in 2016, actually becoming a pillar industry of Wanda.

The film industry now plays an important role in the culture industry. Wang said Wanda has 1,352 theaters and 14,347 screens in the world, and accounts for 12 percent of the global box office market.

In 2012, Wang spent $2.6 billion to buy AMC Entertainment Holdings in the United States, and in 2015 bought Australian cinema operator Hoyts Group.

Last year, Wanda Group announced that it acquired US Legendary Entertainment for no more than $3.5 billion in cash, marking China's largest cross-border cultural acquisition to date.