Silva, RuiLopes, Afonso2026-05-192026-05-192026-01-272025-12-17http://hdl.handle.net/10362/203215This case study analyses AMC Entertainment’s financial restructuring, focusing on valuation, distress diagnostics, and opportunistic financing. The valuation employs discounted cash flow and relative multiples to establish a pre-crisis baseline, while bankruptcy models quantify the solvency and near default crisis triggered by COVID-19. The analysis isolates the meme stock phenomenon, demonstrating how speculative equity issuance provided critical liquidity premium that averted default. Our findings reveal that AMC’s survival stemmed from opportunistic market timing rather than fundamental resilience. The strategic recommendations focus on debt maturity management and balancing retail shareholder governance to transition from a market anomaly to long-term financial stability.engFinancial distressDefault riskDebt analysisBankruptcyBankruptcy prediction modelsDistress risk metricsDebt maturity analysisMeme stockEquity issuanceEquity financingCost of equityOwnership structureSpeculative premiumVolatilityDiscounted cash flow (DCF)Unlevered free cash flow (UDCF)Weighted average cost (WACC)Terminal valueRelative valuationTrading multiplesIntrinsic valuationCapital structureDistress costsCredit ratingsCOVID-19 impactLiquidity and solvencyPayout policyCorporate restructuringmaster thesis204241103