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US financier Colony Capital may be in negotiations to acquire a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment. The Hollywood production company behind "Godzilla" and "Pacific Rim" belongs to the Chinese group Wanda.
Bloomberg reported Sunday that Colony had talks with Wanda. He indicated that Colony could use a new fund, Colony Media Partners, to buy its stake, and that the implicit valuation would be "significantly lower" than the $ 3.5 billion paid by Wanda to Legendary in 2016. Participants in Colony Media Partners are not known to date. .
Bloomberg also said the Saudi Public Investment Fund had also shown renewed interest in Legendary after apparently discussing a $ 700 million investment in 2018.
Contacted by Variety at Monday local time, Wanda did not comment. Similarly, Legendary's representatives chose not to respond to Variety's inquiries.
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Colony Capital is led by leading investor Tom Barrack. Colony had previously purchased the American mini-studio Miramax before selling it to Qatar's BeIN Media Group in 2016.
Joshua Grode, the lawyer and officer who currently runs Legendary, was previously a consultant to Colony and advised the acquisition of Miramax in 2010. It is believed that he and Barrack have remained in touch since Grode joined Legendary, and the permutation of their conversations may have affected Colony's provision of investment capital for the expansion of Legendary's business, as well as the sale of some of the existing holdings of Wanda.
Legendary is currently fully funded by Wanda. But Wanda's financial situation has deteriorated since 2016 and its ability to do business abroad has been restricted.
Wanda was previously the most aggressive Chinese acquirer of entertainment properties in the United States. His purchases included the 2012 agreement for AMC, Legendary and Carmike in 2016, before it was severely limited by a series of Chinese government measures.
As part of a mbadive debt reduction effort, Wanda has sold some of its hotels and most of its leisure parks and amusement parks. These include the studios he built in Qingdao.
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