24 Jul – For the past months, mm2 Asia had been in talks to acquire the entire stake owned by Village Cinemas in Dartina Development, a Hong Kong-incorporated company which holds the Golden Village Cinema business in Singapore. However, the acquisition has failed to take place as mm2 Asia did not manage to obtain approval from Golden Screen, according to The Business Times. Part of mm2's deal with Village Cinemas was to secure approval from Golden Screen Ltd, which holds the remaining 50 per cent in Dartina. The approval was supposed to have been obtained by 21 July. Village Cinemas was responsible for securing the approval, according to William Lau, executive adviser to mm2's chairman, due to mm2 not being party to the agreement between Golden Village's two shareholders. mm2, which had intended to buy the fifty percent stake at the disclosed price of SGD184.3 million, is now looking at other options. The Singapore-based film and TV content producer has previously acquired two smaller cinema chains in Malaysia and is looking to complete its acquisition of a further 13 locations in the country by this year. (Photo source: Golden Village)