Ahead of what will be a critical 2023 for the company, AMC Entertainment, the owner of the AMC Theaters chain, is shaking up its board of directors.
Lee Wittlinger, a general manager at investment firm Silver Lake, will step down from the board, with two new members to be added: former Sundance chief Keri Putnam and veteran tech executive and board member Dee Clark.
The company announced the board renewal on Thursday afternoon.
Putnam and Clark will serve as Class III directors until the company’s annual meeting in 2023, when they will run for election. The company notes that with the new changes, 3 out of 9 directors of the chain will be women, compared to 1 in 8 directors before.
Silver Lake sold its stake in the company last year in the throes of the early “memestock” rally, netting a profit of nearly $300 million for the investment company. With Silver Lake no longer investing in AMC, it is normal for appointed board members to eventually step down.
The changes come as AMC grapples with ongoing challenges for its core business, with a 35 percent cash drop in 2022 from 2019 before the pandemic, and 2023 isn’t necessarily looking dramatically better. At the same time, the memestock rally that propelled the stock price up last year seems to be waning.
As the market closed on Thursday, AMC’s share price was trading at $4.14, while its spin-off APE shares were trading at $1.47. AMC has proposed converting APE stock to AMC stock and conducting a reverse stock split, all in an effort to boost the company’s stock price.
The new board members will have to help the company navigate through that difficult environment.
