Dalian Wanda Group Co., the conglomerate founded by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, has given up its majority control over AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. after the world’s largest cinema chain reported a record loss of $4.6 billion for 2020 amid repeated warnings of insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Wanda, which bought AMC in 2012 for $2.6 billion, cut its stake and voting power in the company to 9.8% as of March 3, AMC said in its annual report. The group continues to be AMC’s largest shareholder, the cinema chain’s Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron said in an earnings call. As of October, Wanda had held 37.7% of the Leawood, Kansas-based company and 64.5% of its voting power. Wanda’s dwindling holdings in AMC marks further contraction of the group’s operations outside of China after it sold its last overseas real estate project in Chicago last year. The company, spanning malls, films, sports and theme parks, was among Chinese conglomerates that accumulated some of the world’s largest debts after paying top prices for overseas trophy assets. The conglomerate has been slimming down aggressively since 2017 to pare debt. “With no controlling shareholder in place, now, AMC will be governed, just as most other publicly traded companies, with a wide array of shareholders,” Aron said during the call.
