Веgіnnіng іn 2011, thе market fоr technology initial public offerings exploded wіth а number оf blockbuster offerings — but wеnt quiet sооn аftеr Facebook’s $16 billion stock sale lаst year.
Friday, 20 September 2013
Monday, 2 September 2013
U.K. Exhibitor Vue to Acquire Remaining Stock of Germany's CinemaxX
vue cinemas - H 2012A Canadian investment group recently bought Vue for $1.45 billion.
BERLIN – Shareholders of German multiplex group CinemaxX AG have approved a so-called "squeeze-out," which will allow British exhibitor Vue to buy up the remaining CinemaxX stock it does not already own and take 100 percent control of the company.
Vue last year paid close to $200 million (€147 million) to acquire the 84.6 percent stake in CinemaxX held by Herbert Kloiber’s Tele Munchen Group. Since then, the British group has been buying up minority stakes and currently holds just under 97.5 percent of Cinemaxx.
Shortly after the Kloiber deal, Vue applied to a German court to request a squeeze-out of minority shareholders without a separate approval by the CinemaxX board of directors. The court rejected that, so Vue had to get board approval, which it has now done.
Vue can now pay off the remaining minority shareholders without fear of future lawsuits. Cinemaxx minority shareholders still have a month to challenge the move before it becomes binding.
Vue’s deal for the group turns the British exhibitor into a pan-European giant, with 119 theaters operating across the U.K., Ireland, Germany and Denmark.
In June, Canadian investment groups OMERS Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corp. signed a deal with private equity firm Doughty Hansonwill to buy Vue for $1.45 billion (£935 million).
BERLIN – Shareholders of German multiplex group CinemaxX AG have approved a so-called "squeeze-out," which will allow British exhibitor Vue to buy up the remaining CinemaxX stock it does not already own and take 100 percent control of the company.
Vue last year paid close to $200 million (€147 million) to acquire the 84.6 percent stake in CinemaxX held by Herbert Kloiber’s Tele Munchen Group. Since then, the British group has been buying up minority stakes and currently holds just under 97.5 percent of Cinemaxx.
Shortly after the Kloiber deal, Vue applied to a German court to request a squeeze-out of minority shareholders without a separate approval by the CinemaxX board of directors. The court rejected that, so Vue had to get board approval, which it has now done.
Vue can now pay off the remaining minority shareholders without fear of future lawsuits. Cinemaxx minority shareholders still have a month to challenge the move before it becomes binding.
Vue’s deal for the group turns the British exhibitor into a pan-European giant, with 119 theaters operating across the U.K., Ireland, Germany and Denmark.
In June, Canadian investment groups OMERS Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corp. signed a deal with private equity firm Doughty Hansonwill to buy Vue for $1.45 billion (£935 million).
Russian Cinema Fund's Board Announces Financing Decisions
MOSCOW -- Russia’s Cinema Fund’s Board has announced its funding decisions for projects by the country’s “top 13” major film production companies, based on pitching sessions held earlier this month.
All of the 26 projects approved by an expert council and recommended to the board will receive government funding, but, unlike in previous years, not all of them are going to receive non-refundable subsidies.
"We have a 1.5 billion ruble [$45.1 million] quota for projects by industry leaders," Anton Malyshev, head of the Cinema Fund, was quoted as saying by Proficinema.ru. "But they requested a total of 4 billion rubles. So we had to find compromise solutions."
As a result, only 13 films will receive non-refundable subsidies. Among them are Solnechny Udar (Sunstroke) by Nikita Mikhalkov’s TRITE, Baba Yaga and Vychislitel (Calculator) by Fyodor Bondarchuk’s Art Pictures and Matilda by Alexey Uchitel's Rock Studio.
Five pictures will receive fully-refundable subsidies, the producers of two more films will have to pay back their subsidies from the movie's future profits and the remaining six films will have a combined financing model.
Repayable subsidies from the Cinema Fund were introduced as of this year in a bid to tighten control over the spending of state cash by filmmakers.
“Producers taking 100%-repayable subsidies or subsidies repayable from profits will have to pay them back to the Cinema Fund regardless of the films’ gross,” Malyshev stressed.
Meanwhile, none of the projects will get financing for more than 70 percent of its budget.
All of the 26 projects approved by an expert council and recommended to the board will receive government funding, but, unlike in previous years, not all of them are going to receive non-refundable subsidies.
"We have a 1.5 billion ruble [$45.1 million] quota for projects by industry leaders," Anton Malyshev, head of the Cinema Fund, was quoted as saying by Proficinema.ru. "But they requested a total of 4 billion rubles. So we had to find compromise solutions."
As a result, only 13 films will receive non-refundable subsidies. Among them are Solnechny Udar (Sunstroke) by Nikita Mikhalkov’s TRITE, Baba Yaga and Vychislitel (Calculator) by Fyodor Bondarchuk’s Art Pictures and Matilda by Alexey Uchitel's Rock Studio.
Five pictures will receive fully-refundable subsidies, the producers of two more films will have to pay back their subsidies from the movie's future profits and the remaining six films will have a combined financing model.
Repayable subsidies from the Cinema Fund were introduced as of this year in a bid to tighten control over the spending of state cash by filmmakers.
“Producers taking 100%-repayable subsidies or subsidies repayable from profits will have to pay them back to the Cinema Fund regardless of the films’ gross,” Malyshev stressed.
Meanwhile, none of the projects will get financing for more than 70 percent of its budget.
Germany's Senator Posts Lower Half-Year Figures
Safe Haven Still Duhamel Hough - H 2012
BERLIN – After the once-in-a-lifetime indie success of French comedy The Intouchables in Germany last year, first-half figures at Berlin distributor Senator slipped.
Revenue dropped nearly 40 percent to $22 million, and a $6 million profit turned into a $1.1 million loss.
The Intouchables soared to the top of the German box office charts last year, eventually earning some $75 million in the territory.
That success single-handedly transformed Senator from a nearly-bust indie producer/distributor to a major player in Germany. The coming months and years will show if the boost was temporary or if Senator can continue to play in the major leagues.
The results so far this year have been weaker. Operating profits dipped more than 35 percent to just under $7 million. Senator's first-half releases, including On The Other Side of the Tracks featuring Intouchables star Omar Sy and Lasse Hallstrom's Safe Haven, have not provided the needed boost.
Senator is betting in-house productions and co-productions will help. The company's highest-profile in-house titles include the co-production A Most Wanted Man starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willem Dafoe and Rachel McAdams and German-language literary adaptation Der Koch from director Ralf Huettner, both of which hit German theaters next year.
BERLIN – After the once-in-a-lifetime indie success of French comedy The Intouchables in Germany last year, first-half figures at Berlin distributor Senator slipped.
Revenue dropped nearly 40 percent to $22 million, and a $6 million profit turned into a $1.1 million loss.
The Intouchables soared to the top of the German box office charts last year, eventually earning some $75 million in the territory.
That success single-handedly transformed Senator from a nearly-bust indie producer/distributor to a major player in Germany. The coming months and years will show if the boost was temporary or if Senator can continue to play in the major leagues.
The results so far this year have been weaker. Operating profits dipped more than 35 percent to just under $7 million. Senator's first-half releases, including On The Other Side of the Tracks featuring Intouchables star Omar Sy and Lasse Hallstrom's Safe Haven, have not provided the needed boost.
Senator is betting in-house productions and co-productions will help. The company's highest-profile in-house titles include the co-production A Most Wanted Man starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willem Dafoe and Rachel McAdams and German-language literary adaptation Der Koch from director Ralf Huettner, both of which hit German theaters next year.
Has NBC Sports Found the Secret of Selling Soccer to U.S. TV Viewers?
NBC's decision to bet big on soccer, signing a three-year deal to snatch U.S. rights for England's Premier League away from Fox, was considered one of the riskier rights deals of the past few years.
Many have tried to sell the world's favorite game to American fans. Many have failed.
But expect a surprising, that is a surprisingly large, number of Americans to tune in to NBCUniversal's live Premier League coverage this weekend.
The first two weeks of top-flight soccer have exceeded everyone's U.S. rating expectations, reaching a peak with NBC Sports Network and NBC Sports Live Extra drawing record numbers for coverage of Monday afternoon's Manchester United vs. Chelsea Premier League match.
NBC Sports Network's telecast averaged 536,000 viewers – its best weekday audience since the 2012 London Olympics. Viewership peaked at 682,000.
While numbers like that are "not great if you're trying to keep a sitcom on the air," for soccer coverage in the U.S. they rate "at least a triple if not a home run," Dave Morgan, managing editor, international at sports industry news site Sports Business Daily Global told The Hollywood Reporter.
John Miller, president of programming for NBC and NBC Sports Network, credits that initial success to not dumbing down or otherwise "Americanizing" its Premier League coverage for a U.S. audience.
"In the past, NBC has been as guilty as all the other networks in trying to fit a square peg in a round hole when it comes to soccer and the U.S. audience," Miller said. "This time we were determined not to Americanize this product. The Premier League is English and our broadcasts are uniquely English with a great English host in (former BBC Sports presenter) Rebecca Lowe and knowledgeable commentators who know the Premier League and can talk about it intelligently."
Speaking to THR, Lowe said she makes only minor adjustments in presenting to a U.S. audience such as paraphrasing the meaning of local derby (a match between teams from the same city or locality) "so that casual fans aren't left out."
Lowe, however, admits to having to explain the offside rule. "Because actually nobody anywhere understands the offside rule. It has changed so much and become so complicated."
NBC's approach to the beautiful game has won plaudits from U.S. fans, but Miller admits the network has also come to soccer at the right time, when interest in the sport is surging in the States. "Things have changed a lot. The U.S. audience has changed, its become more cosmopolitan, more open to new properties, he said. "I think the game itself has also changed in the way it's produced and in the way it's distributed, which provides many more possibilities to reach audiences."
"Soccer is gaining an audience here, you can see that from the growth of the MLS all the way down to the youth leagues," Morgan added. "And NBC's put together a good package. Technically it's strong, lots of camera angles, smartly shot, and without commercials that ruin the natural flow of the games."
Interestingly for NBC's ad team, the demographics of U.S. soccer fans seem to skew much younger than that of the average American sports fan.
"It's also a much better educated demo, much closer to the demo we get for the Olympics or for hockey," Miller said.
Even with the solid start, Premier League soccer in the U.S. is still a long ways from being a mainstream spectator sport.
Critics also point to the fact that for the first two weekends NBC's soccer games had no real competition since they air in the early morning in the U.S. when no other live sports are on.
That could change with the start of the college football season, where kickoff times mean a few Premier League matches will go head-to-head with the NCAA games.
Miller, however, argues the impact will be minimal.
The U.S. soccer audience is still tiny compared to the millions that tune in every week in the U.K. and around the world to watch the English Premier League. But NBC's initial success has set off speculation as to how big soccer could get in America.
Said Morgan: "Is it going to knock college football off the top off the charts? No. But I don't think that is NBC's goal with this package."
Miller avoided giving a concrete ratings forecast for the Premier League, saying the initial numbers have "already far exceeded our expectations. … Our biggest challenge right now isn't to grow the figures, our biggest challenge is to not to mess it up."
Many have tried to sell the world's favorite game to American fans. Many have failed.
But expect a surprising, that is a surprisingly large, number of Americans to tune in to NBCUniversal's live Premier League coverage this weekend.
The first two weeks of top-flight soccer have exceeded everyone's U.S. rating expectations, reaching a peak with NBC Sports Network and NBC Sports Live Extra drawing record numbers for coverage of Monday afternoon's Manchester United vs. Chelsea Premier League match.
NBC Sports Network's telecast averaged 536,000 viewers – its best weekday audience since the 2012 London Olympics. Viewership peaked at 682,000.
While numbers like that are "not great if you're trying to keep a sitcom on the air," for soccer coverage in the U.S. they rate "at least a triple if not a home run," Dave Morgan, managing editor, international at sports industry news site Sports Business Daily Global told The Hollywood Reporter.
John Miller, president of programming for NBC and NBC Sports Network, credits that initial success to not dumbing down or otherwise "Americanizing" its Premier League coverage for a U.S. audience.
"In the past, NBC has been as guilty as all the other networks in trying to fit a square peg in a round hole when it comes to soccer and the U.S. audience," Miller said. "This time we were determined not to Americanize this product. The Premier League is English and our broadcasts are uniquely English with a great English host in (former BBC Sports presenter) Rebecca Lowe and knowledgeable commentators who know the Premier League and can talk about it intelligently."
Speaking to THR, Lowe said she makes only minor adjustments in presenting to a U.S. audience such as paraphrasing the meaning of local derby (a match between teams from the same city or locality) "so that casual fans aren't left out."
Lowe, however, admits to having to explain the offside rule. "Because actually nobody anywhere understands the offside rule. It has changed so much and become so complicated."
NBC's approach to the beautiful game has won plaudits from U.S. fans, but Miller admits the network has also come to soccer at the right time, when interest in the sport is surging in the States. "Things have changed a lot. The U.S. audience has changed, its become more cosmopolitan, more open to new properties, he said. "I think the game itself has also changed in the way it's produced and in the way it's distributed, which provides many more possibilities to reach audiences."
"Soccer is gaining an audience here, you can see that from the growth of the MLS all the way down to the youth leagues," Morgan added. "And NBC's put together a good package. Technically it's strong, lots of camera angles, smartly shot, and without commercials that ruin the natural flow of the games."
Interestingly for NBC's ad team, the demographics of U.S. soccer fans seem to skew much younger than that of the average American sports fan.
"It's also a much better educated demo, much closer to the demo we get for the Olympics or for hockey," Miller said.
Even with the solid start, Premier League soccer in the U.S. is still a long ways from being a mainstream spectator sport.
Critics also point to the fact that for the first two weekends NBC's soccer games had no real competition since they air in the early morning in the U.S. when no other live sports are on.
That could change with the start of the college football season, where kickoff times mean a few Premier League matches will go head-to-head with the NCAA games.
Miller, however, argues the impact will be minimal.
The U.S. soccer audience is still tiny compared to the millions that tune in every week in the U.K. and around the world to watch the English Premier League. But NBC's initial success has set off speculation as to how big soccer could get in America.
Said Morgan: "Is it going to knock college football off the top off the charts? No. But I don't think that is NBC's goal with this package."
Miller avoided giving a concrete ratings forecast for the Premier League, saying the initial numbers have "already far exceeded our expectations. … Our biggest challenge right now isn't to grow the figures, our biggest challenge is to not to mess it up."
Exhibitor AMC Entertainment Files for IPO
Concession Stand Movie Theater - H 2013
Exhibition giant AMC Entertainment, which last year was acquired by China's Dalian Wanda Group, on Friday filed for an IPO again.
The initial public offering will be worth up to $400 million, and the company's stock will trade under ticker symbol AMC on the New York Stock Exchange, the cinema company said in a regulatory filing. It didn't immediately detail how many shares it plans to sell and at what price.
AMC has looked at going public a couple of times in recent years. It filed for an IPO in 2007 only to withdraw its plans later. It made another IPO filing in 2010, but didn't go ahead with the plan to go public and was then acquired by Wanda in a $2.6 billion deal.
Wanda is controlled by its chairman, Wang Jianlin, who is worth $14 billion and is the richest many in China, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Wanda owns real estate, department stores, office buildings and in June it paid $1.6 billion for Sunseeker International, a British maker of yachts that have been used in James Bond movies.
When AMC is combined with theaters Wanda owns in China, it represents the largest chain in the world. Wanda's other entertainment assets include karaoke bars and investments in live shows and movies.
AMC, which operates 343 theaters primarily in North America, said it may use money raised from the IPO to finance expansion and repay some of its $2.1 billion in long-term debt.
When AMC ditched plans for an IPO more than four years ago it was attributed to bad timing, given the company was posting declining sales and profits. But the first half of this year, AMC said revenue increased 2.6 percent to $1.34 billion and profit soared more than 100 percent to $41 million.
Plus, Wall Street seems receptive to the movie exhibition industry nowadays, as shares of Cinemark Holdings and Carmike Cinemas have risen 17 percent so far this year and stock in Regal Entertainment Group is up 31 percent.
The stocks of all three of those theater chains have outperformed the S&P 500, which is up 14 percent on the year thus far.
Exhibition giant AMC Entertainment, which last year was acquired by China's Dalian Wanda Group, on Friday filed for an IPO again.
The initial public offering will be worth up to $400 million, and the company's stock will trade under ticker symbol AMC on the New York Stock Exchange, the cinema company said in a regulatory filing. It didn't immediately detail how many shares it plans to sell and at what price.
AMC has looked at going public a couple of times in recent years. It filed for an IPO in 2007 only to withdraw its plans later. It made another IPO filing in 2010, but didn't go ahead with the plan to go public and was then acquired by Wanda in a $2.6 billion deal.
Wanda is controlled by its chairman, Wang Jianlin, who is worth $14 billion and is the richest many in China, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Wanda owns real estate, department stores, office buildings and in June it paid $1.6 billion for Sunseeker International, a British maker of yachts that have been used in James Bond movies.
When AMC is combined with theaters Wanda owns in China, it represents the largest chain in the world. Wanda's other entertainment assets include karaoke bars and investments in live shows and movies.
AMC, which operates 343 theaters primarily in North America, said it may use money raised from the IPO to finance expansion and repay some of its $2.1 billion in long-term debt.
When AMC ditched plans for an IPO more than four years ago it was attributed to bad timing, given the company was posting declining sales and profits. But the first half of this year, AMC said revenue increased 2.6 percent to $1.34 billion and profit soared more than 100 percent to $41 million.
Plus, Wall Street seems receptive to the movie exhibition industry nowadays, as shares of Cinemark Holdings and Carmike Cinemas have risen 17 percent so far this year and stock in Regal Entertainment Group is up 31 percent.
The stocks of all three of those theater chains have outperformed the S&P 500, which is up 14 percent on the year thus far.
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