Gerry Lopez (R), chief executive of AMC Entertainment, sits next to Wang Jianlin, president of Wanda Group. (Photo : Reuters)
Wanda Cinemas will easily be able to follow through on its commitment to fund more cinema-related initiatives within China after a notable first day of trading on China's Shenzhen Stock Exchange, when the floor witnessed Wanda Cinemas' shares surge by 44 percent.
The magnitude of the surge, which occurred at the cinema company's market debut on Thursday, was the maximum allowed for new listings, and the cinema chain closed at 30.74 yuan ($4.94), with an overall value of over 17 billion yuan ($2.7 billion).
Wanda Cinema is among the numerous business entities under owner Wang Jianlin's private conglomerate, Dalian Wanda Group. By distributing 60 million new shares, equivalent to 10.71 percent of Dalian Wanda's enlarged share capital, the company managed to raise a total sum of 1.28 billion yuan ($210 million) on Thursday.
The debut was staged during a period in which China's cinema audiences are generating very impressive box-office sales figures.
Wang also garnered media attention last week due to his purchase of a 20-percent stake in Spanish association football club Atletico Madrid. Wang, who is second to Alibaba Group's Jack Ma in China in terms of wealth, paid 45 million euros (315 million yuan) for the stake in the Spanish sporting club.
The historic investment is the first time that a Chinese businessperson has owned shares in a top European football club. At the time of the Atletico announcement, Wang told reporters that he had met Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy over a three-billion-euro "megadeal."
On Tuesday, Wang's net worth was reported as $24.6 billion--29th on the worldwide Bloomberg Billionaires list--and this week's Shenzhen debut occurred after another of his companies, shopping-mall developer Dalian Wanda, was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange at the end of 2014.
