Cineworld Group on Tuesday announced that it has agreed to buy U.S. counterpart Regal Entertainment for $3.6 billion, in a deal that would give the British movie theater operator more screens to compete with industry leader AMC Entertainment.
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The proposed deal would create a company with more than 9,000 screens.
AMC Entertainment, part of China’s Dalian Wanda Group, last year bought Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group in Europe, and ran or had interests in more than 11,000 screens across 1,006 theaters as of Sept. 30, according to regulatory filings.
Cineworld has offered $23 a share for Regal, the second-largest cinema chain in the U.S., as announced last week when it confirmed that the two companies were in talks.
Cineworld said that any deal will be funded by a mixture of debt and a 1.7 billion-pound ($2.28 billion) rights issue.
The deal is classified as a reverse takeover under London Stock Exchange rules.
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Write Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com
