AMC to buy Carmike, becoming world’s biggest theater chain

By Erich Schwartzel

Ken Wolter/Shutterstock

An AMC Entertainment IMAX theater is seen in Sunnyvale, Calif.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. agreed to buy Carmike Cinemas Inc. in a deal that would make a Chinese-owned company the largest movie-theater operator in the U.S.

AMC /quotes/zigman/21316533/composite AMC +1.24%   will pay $30 a share for Carmike  for a total payout of $1.1 billion, including the assumption of some Carmike debt, the companies said Thursday. The price is a nearly 20% premium to Carmike’s closing share price of $25.11 on Nasdaq.

The deal would also make AMC the world’s largest movie-theater operator.

AMC was purchased in 2012 by China’s Dalian Wanda Group Corp. for $2.6 billion. AMC’s 5,425 screens are concentrated in urban locations, while Carmike’s roughly 2,954 screens tend to be in more suburban and rural areas.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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AMC Entertainment Holding Inc. Cl A

US : U.S.: NYSE

$ 13.87

+0.17 +1.24%

Volume: 971,359

Feb. 22, 2019 4:02p

P/E Ratio

N/A

Dividend Yield

5.77%

Market Cap

$1.42 billion

Rev. per Employee

$137,146