Picturehouse founder in talks to buy back chain from Cineworld - Sky News (updated)
07/03/2023 15:40
(Adds Vue declines to comment)
March 7 (Reuters) - Picturehouse founder Lyn Goleby has
held talks with London-based Vue International, a reported
bidder for Cineworld CINE.L , about buying back the chain that
was sold to the bankrupt cinema operator in 2012, Sky News said
on Tuesday.
Cineworld, the world's second-largest cinema chain operator,
is currently under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and has
failed to find a buyer for the whole company.
Sky News last month reported that Vue was among the bidders
for Cineworld assets.
On Tuesday, it said the sale of cinema chain Picturehouse
could aid Vue from a competition perspective given its status as
one of Britain's biggest cinema operators.
Cineworld and Vue declined to comment on the Sky report.
Goleby, who co-founded Picturehouse Cinemas in 1989, did not
immediately respond to a request for comment sent through
networking platform LinkedIn.
Along with exploring a sale, Cineworld is also looking at a
possible plan of reorganisation to fix its debt-ridden balance
sheet, but neither exit path would see shareholders recover
their equity interest.
The company, which owns Regal in the United States, bought
UK-based independent movie theatre operator Picturehouse for
47.3 million pounds ($56.71 million) in 2012.
It was unclear on Tuesday whether Goleby and Vue had reached
any form of agreement about the terms of a collaboration, the
report said.
($1 = 0.8341 pounds)
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika
Syamnath)
((Yadarisa.Shabong@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9742735150;))