Beijing Weying Technology Co (WePiao) is taking a two per cent shareholding in Vista Group International as part of a deal that will see the pair set up a new venture to tap into China's expanding film market.
It is expected to generate more than $NZ30 million ($A27.46 million) for the New Zealand cinema software provider in the first year.
Under the terms of the deal, which are both confidential and conditional on regulatory approval, Vista will provide the new venture with the distribution rights to all of its existing software including Vista Cinema, Veezi, Movio, MACCS and Numero.
WePiao will acquire up to two per cent of new shares in Vista Group for cash at the volume-weighted average price of its shares in the prior month.
Vista Group chief executive Murray Holdaway said the company had been committed to the Chinese market for some time and the deal would speed up sales of its core cinema product and its cloud-based product, Veezi, which is suited to the larger number of smaller cinemas in China, and launch its other products.
Holdaway said it may also lead to cooperation with Vista in other markets.
Approval from Chinese regulators for the share deals is expected to take up to three months and is also subject to WePiao doing due diligence on Vista China and no warranty breaches occurring in the interim period.
WePiao is backed by Tencent Holdings, along with the China Cultural Investment Fund and other investors, including some leading Chinese cinema chains.
Its smartphone ticketing application is embedded in the WeChat messaging app which has more than 600 million monthly active users, mainly in China.
Vista has over 350 staff in seven offices in New Zealand, Australia, the US, UK, the Netherlands and China and estimates that in excess of a billion cinema tickets are processed each year through its products.
