Legendary Entertainment Loses Two Chinese Investors In Wanda Holding

Two Chinese investors – Oceanwide Holdings Co. and Zhejiang Huace Film & TV Co. – have exited their investments in Legendary Entertainment which was made through Dalian Wanda Group Co., Deadline has confirmed. Together, they accounted for $236M in holdings. Both of these Chinese investors were part of Dalian Wanda’s publicly heralded $1.5 billion in fundraising proclaimed by Wanda after it purchased Legendary for $3.5 billion in cash in 2016.

Both investors were considered minority stakeholders but were expecting a lofty 15% return on their investments. The news was first reported by Bloomberg. Why 15%? Wanda had planned to take Legendary public on the Chinese stock market but has not been able to do so.

Deadline examined the Legendary situation in August after the Chinese government leaders placed tight restrictions on investments outside the U.S. in terms of entertainment holdings.

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This also comes as Wanda’s president of film John Zeng held court yesterday for roughly 60 entertainment execs in the Century City AMC. What was expected to be a talk about their holdings and where Chinese investment might lead was nothing more than a talk about marketing plans for their films and the growing Chinese box office, according to one attendee.

The Chinese government has put an end to state-owned banks giving out loans to companies that are not keeping their investments inside China. That could change mid-month when the National Congress of the Communist Party meets on Oct. 18.