circuits in Singapore and Malaysia. Mm2 Asia made a similar filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange.
The Golden Harvest statement said that the exhibition business is facing “challenges” from the COVID-19 outbreak and the advent of streaming apps and video watch via social media. It made no reference to the changing windows practices of the major Hollywood studios which normally account for the vast majority of ticket sales.
Golden Harvest for many years had joint ownership of Golden Village in partnership with Australia’s Village Roadshow. However, in 2017, Golden Harvest blocked the sale of Village Roadshow’s 50% stake to would-be buyer mm2. Golden Harvest then bought Village’s shares, making it the outright owner, while mm2 went and paid top dollar to acquire privately-owned Cathay. That put the two groups in head-to-head competition.
Golden Harvest’s decade-long exhibition sector adventure in China, where it had initially built some of the country’s most successful multiplexes, ended in January 2017 when it sold its by then badly struggling chain to Dadi.