Onex to Purchase Landmark Theatres

Onex Corp., a Canadian conglomerate that has been aggressively buying up movie theater chains during the last three years, has agreed to buy Los Angeles-based exhibitor Landmark Theatres and Silver Cinemas for about $80 million.

Landmark is one of the nation’s largest art-house chains, and it operates West Los Angeles’ historic Nuart Theatre, South Pasadena’s Rialto Theatre and the U.C. Theatre near UC Berkeley among its 67 theaters with 290 screens across the country.

Landmark is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oaktree Capital Management, a Los Angeles private equity firm. Landmark is expected to be operated as a specialty film division of Onex’s Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corp.

Onex and Oaktree already are partners. In March the companies acquired the New York-based Loews movie theater chain and its Canadian subsidiary, Cineplex Odeon, as the chain emerged from bankruptcy protection. Onex acquired a 60% stake in Loews. Oaktree owns 40%.

Onex’s other theater properties include Star Theatres, Magic Johnson Theatres, Yelmo Cineplex, Megabox Cineplex and Grupo Cinemex. The company owns 296 theaters with 2,877 screens in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Spain.

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Bloomberg News was used in compiling this report.