Wanda sells Legendary Entertainment property back to studio

Legendary Entertainment is making a major strategic move and buying out Dalian Wanda Group’s shares in the company.

In an interview with The Hollywood ReporterLegendary CEO Josh Grode called the deal a “right place, right time” situation.

“Wanda was looking for some liquidity for some of his investments. And we have had a great first part of the year, we had a very strong 2023, so we have a significant excess of liquidity on our balance sheet,” says Grode. “After talking about it for about six months, we were able to reach terms that we thought were good and the transaction turned out to be very beneficial for both management and Apollo because once the transaction is completed we will be the owners of the company . “about the same.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the company said it funded the acquisition “using cash on its balance sheet with no leverage, and that following the transaction, the company still has significant excess liquidity to support its current business and operations.” to finance planned expansion”.

Wanda acquired Legendary in 2016 in a deal that valued the studio at $3.5 billion. However, private equity firm Apollo acquired a $760 million minority stake in 2022, buying out part of Wanda’s stake in the company.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with Legendary and continue to support Josh and Mary [Parent] and the incredibly talented team,” Apollo partners Aaron Sobel and Lee Solomon said in a statement. “We continue to view Legendary as an excellent platform for future growth, well-positioned to thrive as the entertainment industry evolves.”

Legendary’s Board of Directors will be reconstituted to include an equal number of Apollo management and executives.

“This transaction was very profitable for all of us and therefore we believe that we acquired it at a very good price,” says Grode.

The acquisition comes during a successful year for the company with two of its films Dune: Part Two And Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire It grossed almost $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office. Upcoming projects include video game adaptations based on the Minecraft And Street fighter franchise, as well as an upcoming Denis Villeneuve film and an untitled Alejandro G. Iñárritu film starring Tom Cruise.

“Success doesn’t come from one place, it comes from everyone working together to achieve a common goal,” says Grode, praising the work of Legendary’s creative team led by Mary Parent and the company’s partners at Warner Bros. This is truly the result of many people’s hard work over the years.”

Grode noted that while the company’s creative engines won’t change, a big benefit of acquiring Wanda is that Legendary will have more flexibility in executing large M&A deals.

“We had management and creative control before the deal, so nothing really changes on that front,” he says. “I think the only thing that may no longer exist is that when we talk about large-scale mergers and acquisitions, we would have to address the issue of foreign ownership, and that is no longer an issue.”

Founded in 2000 by Thomas Tull, Legendary has built its projects on its ability to work with established intellectual property partners and major studios, evidenced by its involvement in films from around the world Godzilla And dune To Jurassic world And Warcraft.

Now, under the exclusive direction of its management team and with support from Apollo, Legendary will pursue its film and television strategy while seeking other growth opportunities. It should be noted that Legendary secured an $800 million credit facility from JPMorgan last year.

“We are now in a position to have a significant stake in the company and have a lot of excess liquidity in the company,” says Grode. “We believe there is an opportunity to continue creating great content for film and television and expand our operations in these areas. Not that we couldn’t do it before, but now we can do it through organic growth and M&A.