One of Australia's largest cinema chains, Hoyts has become one of several successful acquisitions by the Dalian Wanda Group in recent years. (Photo : Reuters)
Australia's Hoyts Group announced on Dec. 23, Tuesday, its sale to an investment vehicle set up by Chinese billionaire entrepreneur Sun Xishuang.
The second largest cinema operator in terms of screens, Hoyts said that Sun, who is China's 149th richest man and a major shareholder of the Chinese property giant Dalian Yifang, purchased Hoyts from its private equity owner, Pacific Equity Partners (PEP), via his Virgin Islands-based company ID Leisure.
"We look forward to the investment and development of Hoyts going forward under the ownership of a new investor," Damian Keogh, Hoyts's chief executive, said in a statement.
Financial terms regarding the sale were not officially disclosed, although according to reports from Australian newspaper Sydney Morning Herald, the deal was worth almost $1 billion.
Sun's acquisition of Hoyts marks the end of a hectic year of exits for PEP, Australia's biggest private equity firm, as it has shifted its sights on businesses that are currently benefiting from the country's relatively stable equity market, low unemployment and record-low interest rates.
PEP earlier planned to run a dual-track sale process for the 450-screen cinema giant in 2014, along with the possibility of an IPO that, according to sources close to the deal, would seek to generate approximately A$900 million ($731 million).
But after a series of weak recent listings and news that U.S.-based streaming juggernaut Netflix will open its services to Australia in March, sources said that PEP has yet to rule out a private sale for Hoyts, which it had bought previously for A$440 million from West Australian Newspapers and Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd., a consortium which included Australian casino magnate James Packer in 2007.
The sale also continues a run of major cinema acquisitions by Chinese companies seeking to reach out to international markets. In 2012, China's Dalian Wanda Group acquired AMC Theatres, the second biggest cinema chain in the U.S. with 5,000 screens, for $2.6 billion.
