China's Wanda Group buys Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion

The group also bought the US cinema chain AMC in 2012 and is developing an $8 billion studio complex in eastern China

Wanda Group announced today it is buying Hollywood's Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion in the first Chinese acquisition of a major US film company.

Wanda, whose chairman, Wang Jianlin, is one of Chinese richest businesspeople, has expanded rapidly into the film industry.

It bought the US cinema chain AMC in 2012 and is developing an $8 billion studio complex in eastern China.

New but cash-rich Chinese companies are on a buying spree abroad in industries from finance to yacht building for assets that can speed their development at home and help them expand in global markets.

With its latest acquisition, Wanda's film businesses will include a full range of production, distribution and exhibition, Wang said in a statement.

The company, headquartered in the northeastern port city of Dalian, also has interests in hotels, retailing and real estate.

Legendary's productions include the "Batman" trilogy, "Inception" and "The Hangover." The company says its movies have grossed more than $12 billion worldwide.

"Wanda will help Legendary increase its market opportunities, especially in the fast-growing China market," said Wang.

Global film, music and television companies see China and its increasingly prosperous population of 1.3 billion potential viewers as one of their most promising markets. Even as economic growth slows, China's consumer spending is expanding faster than that of the United States and other Western markets.

Ticket sales in China, already one of the world's biggest movie markets, rose nearly 50% last year to 44 billion yuan ($6.8 billion), according to Nomura.

It said in a January 7 report that total revenue is forecast to rise another 25% this year.

Wang, 62, ranked as China's richest businessperson last year, with a net worth of $34 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which follows China's wealthy.

Chinese companies invested $11 billion in the United States over the past year, according to data gathered by Derek Scissors, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. The total since 2005 stands at $93.3 billion.

Many acquisitions abroad are aimed at obtaining technology or brands to expand the buyer's market share in China or to capture profit from foreign goods and services flowing into China.

On Monday, China's biggest chemical company, state-owned ChemChina, announced it has bought a German maker of machinery to process rubber and plastic, KraussMaffei, for $1 billion (925 million euros). It was the biggest Chinese investment to date in Germany.