People walk outside the newly recorded AMC 34th Street 14 movie theater as the town follows Phase 4 of reopening after restrictions imposed on coronavirus spread slowed down on September 4, 2020 in New York City.
Noam Galai | Getty Images
China Wanda Group, the major shareholder in AMC Entertainment Holdings, made a share change to allow the sale of its stock in the cinema operator, a target of the recent WallStreetBets sales frenzy, AMC said in an exchange filing.
Wanda America Entertainment, Wanda’s unit, converted its Class B common stock at AMC to Class A shares on Feb. 1 “to allow sales of its common stock,” AMC said in the filtering to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. on 5 February.
The filing did not provide details of the amount of stock converted into Class A shares or whether Wanda had sold any shares in AMC. Wanda did not immediately return a request for comment.
Shares of AMC rose to $ 17.25 on Feb. 1, almost quadruple from a week earlier, as social media platforms such as Reddit encouraged frenetic selling into scarce stocks as AMC and GameStop.
AMC shares fell 41% the next day and the stock is now down about 60% from the February 1 high.
The fuel-fueled trading frenzy on social media has cooled over the past few days as U.S. financial regulators investigate the Reddit-led GameStop stock rise.
Wanda, which owns businesses from real estate to entertainment, bought a majority stake in AMC in 2012 for $ 2.6 billion, in what was then the largest overseas purchase by a private Chinese company.
In 2018, the Chinese conglomerate who once owned property has been exposed to a U.S. cinema operator amid tighter regulatory scrutiny by Beijing over overseas expansion of Chinese companies.
Wanda still owns control of AMC, according to the agency’s website. The Hollywood producer is also Wanda, producer of Legendary Entertainment and Australian cinema cinema Hoyts Cinema, the website said.