E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has announced plans to buy a $1.2 billion stake in Wanda Film, the Chinese movie division of Dalian Wanda Group, the company said Monday.
Alibaba is to pay 4.68 billion yuan for a 7.66 percent stake in Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Film Holding Co., making it the company’s second-biggest shareholder.
In addition, Wanda announced that the Chinese government-backed Beijing Cultural Investment Holdings will pay 3.12 billion yuan for a 5.11 percent stake.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has shown an increasing interest in the Chinese film industry, which is expected to surpass North America’s as the world’s largest in box office revenues by 2020.
In 2016, Alibaba bought a stake in Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners to pursue a joint venture in producing and distributing films both in China and internationally.