mm2 Asia's S$230M cinema bet collapsed — Cathay liquidated as UOB chased S$74.6M

mm2 Asia — the Singapore group behind local hits like Ah Boys to Men and I Not Stupid 3, founded in 2008 by former Mediacorp managing director Melvin Ang and listed on SGX's Catalist in December 2014 at S$51.8 million — spent 2015–2017 diversifying into visual effects, video-on-demand, concerts and cinemas: Malaysian cinema assets, Lotus Fivestar's 13 locations, and in November 2017 Cathay Cineplexes for S$230 million (eight cinemas, 64 screens), bought after a failed bid for 50 per cent of Golden Village.

The model — debt and repeated share issues funding an acquisition ladder across entertainment sub-sectors — met the pandemic with cinemas shut. The proposed merger of Cathay, Mega and Lotus Fivestar with Golden Village lapsed in January 2022; an S$84 million sale of the cinema business to Kingsmead Properties fell through the same month. Auditors flagged going-concern doubts in July 2021 and again in July 2022. Cathay shrank steadily: The Cathay at Handy Road closed in June 2022, Cineleisure in June 2023, and Jem in March 2025 when Lendlease's Reit terminated the lease claiming S$4.3 million.

2025 was the endgame: landlords' demands mounted (S$2.7 million in January, Frasers' S$3.3 million statutory demand in July), eight letters of demand totalling S$17.6 million by August, and a second-half loss topping S$101 million after the cinema unit was written off. Cathay Cineplexes entered voluntary liquidation in September. On 10 November 2025 UOB demanded about S$74.6 million — roughly triple mm2's S$26 million market value — and the board, unable to affirm going concern, sought a four-month court moratorium against winding-up, with over S$200 million of borrowings due within a year.

mm2 bought Cathay Cineplexes for S$230 million in November 2017 — late in the streaming disruption — after failing to win Golden Village, loading cinema fixed costs onto a borrowed balance sheet.

Growth was financed by serial placements, bonds and interlocking stakes (StarHub, Unusual, the Vividthree listing), so when the cinema cash engine stopped there was no cushion.

Every proposed exit lapsed: the Golden Village merger window closed in January 2022 and the Kingsmead sale collapsed the same month, leaving the shrinking cinemas on the books for four more years.

By 2025 the group was meeting obligations with ad-hoc asset sales — the Vividthree stake, placements — while statutory demands accumulated, converting a liquidity squeeze into a restructuring filing.

Buying into a disrupted industry on borrowed money turns a downturn into insolvency: mm2 paid S$230M for cinemas in 2017 while streaming was hollowing out theatrical film.

Cathay Cineplexes ceased operations and entered voluntary liquidation in September 2025. mm2 Asia wrote off its cinema business mm Connect; scrapped a stake sale to Hildrics Asia Growth Fund, which took 29 per cent of Vividthree instead; settled a RM1.7 million dispute with a Malaysian landlord; and drew a further S$2.6 million claim from Frasers Centrepoint Trust. On 10 November it filed a High Court moratorium application that could block winding-up resolutions for four months while it pursued restructuring, with UOB's S$74.6 million demand pending and trading of its shares suspended.