China Film Co., the distribution unit of state-owned China Film Group, is to raise $610 million (RMB4.09 billion) in its upcoming share flotation.
Documents filed Wednesday show the offering going ahead next week (July 28), with investor interest being gauged July 22-25. Shares will then be traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
CFG’s stake in China Film Co. will drop from 93% at present to 67% following the share sale.
The sale proceeds will be reinvested in theaters and content production. The company revealed plans to invest in 53 movies and 14 TV dramas in the next three years.
The company revealed 73% growth in profits last year to $130 million (RMB868 million.)
The sale terms imply a market capitalization of some $2.35 billion and a historic price to earnings ratio of 17 times.
The share sale was signalled last week by the China Securities Regulatory Commission as it unfroze the IPO pipeline in mainland China that had been largely blocked since major stock market turbulence last summer. CFG has been positioning itself for partial privatization for over a decade, but had seen several previous attempts to list stalled by either corporate reorganization or unfavorable share market conditions.
China Film Co. is the dominant film distributor in the country and, with Huaxia Distribution, is part of an oligopoly that currently controls distribution of all the major Hollywood films imported under revenue-sharing terms.