Wanda heads toward record M&A year

Billionaire Wang Jianlin is headed for a record year of mergers and acquisitions as the Chinese tycoon seeks to build an entertainment empire that could challenge The Walt Disney Co by the end of the decade.

Wang's AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc raised its offer for Carmike Cinemas Inc on Monday, pushing the total amount of purchases completed or announced by the tycoon's companies to more than $16 billion this year. That's more than triple Wang's M&A total in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Most of the investments are going toward buying entertainment assets to transform Wang's flagship Dalian Wanda Group Co into a juggernaut with $200 billion in market capitalization and $100 billion of annual sales by the end of the decade. The idea is that China's push to shift the economy into a consumption-driven one, coupled with a growing middle class, will be a boon for the leisure industry.