AMC and LCE to merge in face of declining cinema attendances
by Brian Turner
As attendance at movie theaters in the United States is at its lowest in a decade, AMC Entertainment and Loews Cineplex Entertainment have agreed to a merger that will create the second-biggest theatre chain in the US.
The two companies were already in talks in 2004 before each was purchased by separate groups of private equity firms.
Terms of the present deal were not made public, but when each company was purchased last year, AMC cost JP Morgan Partners and Apollo Management $1.67 and Bain Capital, Carlyle, and Spectrum Equity Investors paid $1.46 billion for Loews.
The group that owns AMC will own 60 percent of the new company, and the Loews group will control the remaining 40 percent.
Once the deal is closed and regulators approve it, the company is expected to be taken public next year.
The merger is expected to give the new company, which will be run by the current AMC chief executive, a better position in negotiating exhibitor’s rights with Hollywood studios.
It is also expected to bring cost cuts at a time when US movie ticket sales are down 11 percent from last year since the summer movie season began on May 6.
Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums
Story link: AMC and LCE to merge in face of declining cinema attendances
Add to Bookmarks:
Related financial stories to: AMC and LCE to merge in face of declining cinema attendances
- Boeing and Lockheed Martin to merge satellite launch operations
- Nationwide and Portman merge
- WTI hits new high before declining
- Metals hit new highs before declining
- One in seven homeowners could face negative equity
- One million households face negative equity
- S&P warns insurance syndicates face ruin from hurricane
- Unocal and Chevron face investors
- Taxpayers face £1 billion loss due to nationalisation of Northern Rock
- US Treasury bonds continue to face sell-off
Tags:
Previous: « Copper falls from high
Next: Japanese export volumes fall again »
Visited 842 times, 1 so far today
