(Bloomberg) -- AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., the beleaguered movie-theater chain, rose as much as 9.4% after its chief executive officer said the company has no plans this year to issue any of 500 million new shares it’s asking investors to authorize.

Shares of AMC were up 4.3% to $9.75 at 11:40 a.m. in New York after climbing as high as $10.23.

The company is asking shareholders voting at the May 4 annual meeting to allow the issuance of new stock. The theater chain has about 450 million shares outstanding now, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

CEO Adam Aron said on a YouTube show Wednesday that AMC won’t issue any of the new shares this year. The remarks were included in a regulatory filing Thursday.

“We hereby pledge at AMC that if the shareholders approve this authorization for 500 million new shares to be issued we will not use one of those 500 million shares in calendar year 2021. Not one. Not one,” Aron said.

Closings sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic brought theater chains to the brink of bankruptcy, including Leawood, Kansas-based AMC. Many have now reopened. Some, however, will not be coming back after the financial struggles of the past year. ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres, two jointly owned California movie-theater chains, announced plans this week to close permanently, underscoring the still-tenuous state of the industry.

Aron said AMC has an existing authorization to issue 43 million shares if the company needs to raise money in the short term.

“We have made no decisions yet. We are thinking about it, but we haven’t made any decisions yet,” he said.

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