PE-controlled Chinese cinema equipment maker files for US IPO

According to a regulatory filing, Carlyle Asia Growth Partners IV, a 2008 vintage vehicle with a corpus of $1 billion, holds 48.8% of GDC. Yunfeng has 18.3%.

GDC's parent, Hong Kong-listed Global Digital Creation Holdings, agreed to sell an 80% interest in the company to Carlyle and its affiliates in August 2011 for HK$568 million ($73 million). Yunfeng is understood to have participated in this deal. Global Digital Creation still owns 11.5% of the company.

Last November, Hong Kong-based movie production company Huayi Brothers Media bought a 9% stake in GDC for $20.9 million. It remains an investor.

GDC claims to have the largest installed base of digital cinema services in Asia Pacific and the second-largest globally, as of March 2013. Clients include all of the top 10 cinema chains in China, with digital servers installed for nearly 8,000 screens nationwide. It also has 8,300 serves in the US and last year agreed to ship 300 projection systems to India's second-largest cinema chain and 1,750 servers to Mexico's second-largest cinema chain.

The company has seen its profit grow from $19.9 million in 2010 to $27.7 million in 2012. Revenues expanded 60% to $116.6 million over the same period.

After 15 listings in 2011, discount clothing website Vipshop and social networking platform YY were the only Chinese firms to make a breakthrough in the US last year. Investors remain wary of Chinese stocks following the spate of accounting scandals among US-listed companies that emerged in 2010.

However, LightInTheBox, a Beijing-based online clothing retailer, is also in the process of listing and there are hopes that others may follow, including e-commerce players 360Buy and Vancl and car hire rental company China Auto Rental.

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• Topics
• Technology
• Media
• Exits
• Greater China
• IPO
• Exit
• The Carlyle Group
• Yunfeng Capital
• China
• TMT