Hoyts acquired by ID Leisure Ventures and Sun Xishuang

CINEMA chain Hoyts has been bought out by a Chinese billionaire’s British Virgin Islands-based investment fund.

Hoyts has opened a luxury cinema at Broadway Shopping Centre called Hoyts Lux

HOYTS cinema chain has been bought by a Chinese billionaire.

The cinema group was acquired by British Virgin Island-based investment fund, ID Leisure Ventures, founded by Chinese billionaire Sun Xishuang, according to The Australian.

Hoyts has 43 cinemas across Australia and New Zealand and also owns advertising business Val Morgan and the Hoyts DVD kiosk operations.

Hoyts was previously owned by Pacific Equity Partners, which had floated the idea of a stock market listing as recently as a few months ago. At the time, valuations for the group came in around the $850 million mark.

Kerry Packer’s Consolidated Press owned Hoyts between 1999 and 2005, having purchased it for $405 million. It was then sold to PBL and West Australian Newspapers before it was offloaded again in 2007 to PEP for $440 million.

The terms of the current deal were undisclosed.

Hoyts could not be reached for comment.