, Columnist
Carmike's Cheap Ticket Price
China's richest man picked an opportune time to buy another U.S. movie chain.
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They say there's a winner and a loser in any deal. In the case of AMC Entertainment's $1.1 billion takeover of Carmike Cinemas, the winner would be Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin.
AMC, the U.S. movie theater chain controlled by Wang's Dalian Wanda Group, opportunistically swooped in to buy the smaller rival after Carmike's stock tumbled during the past year. The transaction, at $30 a share, values Carmike at about 9 times its trailing 12-month Ebitda. The company had traded closer to 10 times Ebitda a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. (Or, using Carmike's own calculation of adjusted Ebitda, the takeover multiple is about 8, versus almost 9 a year ago.)