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Korean group to buy Megastar cinemas
The Seoul-based CJ CGV Ltd is planning to buy a controlling share of Megastar Media Company (Megastar), Viet Nam's leading cinema owner and film distributor, according to Film Business Asia.
CJ CGV will spend US$73.6 million to buy a 92-per-cent share in Virgin Islands-registered Envoy Media Partners, which owns an 80-per-cent share of Megastar. The transaction is expected to be completed within the next four weeks.
Other shares of Megastar are owned by Phuong Nam Corporation, a Vietnamese publishing and entertainment company.
Megastar, which opened its first cinema in Ha Noi in 2006, operates seven multiplexes and 54 screens in Ha Noi, Hai Phong, HCM City and Dong Nai Province. Last year, Megastar held a 60-per-cent turnover of the market's box office and earned revenues of $23 million. Its current assets of $38 million.
The Vietnamese film industry has been growing fast in recent years, with the box office receipts from 150 cinema screens increasing at around 20 per cent per year.
The market had grown from an annual $2 million in 2006 to 25 million in 2010, including $5 million in ticket sales from Vietnamese productions, reported by Film Business Asia.
As the leading exhibitor in South Korea, the CJ CGV has operated 75 multiplex movie theatres with 610 screens nationwide. It opened a multiplex in Koreantown Los Angeles and five others in China. The group opened its representative office in HCM City early this year and aims to expand its business in Viet Nam.
Its competitor, Lotte Shopping/Lotte Entertainment in 2008, bought Diamond Cinema Joint Venture Company (DMC), a Korean cinema chain operating six multiplexes in HCM City and Da Nang City.
vietnamnews
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