AMC’s ‘APE’ Stock Draws Pension Fund Suit Over Dilution Claims

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is facing investor litigation over allegations it’s using a complex corporate engineering scheme to wrongfully sideline small retail investors who flocked to the company in a “meme stock” frenzy at the height of the pandemic.

A pension fund sued AMC and members of its board Monday, claiming they’re illegally empowering holders of nearly a billion fractional preferred shares called “APEs"—each worth 1/100th of a supervoting preferred share—in an end run around investors’ votes rebuffing their efforts to increase the class A share limit.

“AMC and the board presumably believe their game of ‘3-D chess’ against the ...