Wanda Group seeks $1.5bn in domestic funding for film-production arm

Mainland conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group plans to raise US$1.5 billion from Chinese investors for its movie-production business Wanda Pictures, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a document prepared by the company for the offering. The funding round would value Wanda Pictures, which also includes the recently acquired US studio Legendary Entertainment, at RMB35 billion (about US$5.3 billion), or about 32 times expected earnings in 2016 according to the same document. Legendary, which sold for US$3.5 billion in January, is expected to contribute 73% of earnings and 80% of total revenue at the unit. Wanda’s own production unit generated RMB6.7 billion in box-office sales in 2015.