Shares in Cineworld have plunged further after the movie chain said it had received no all-cash offers from potential suitors to save its global business, and any bankruptcy rescue deal would wipe out shareholders.
The London-listed group, which was forced into bankruptcy in the US despite a wider recovery in cinema-going fuelled by hits such as the sequels to Avatar and Top Gun, said it has received non-binding proposals from a “number of potential transaction counterparties” for its business.
However, the world’s second-largest cinema operator admitted earlier this week that it had not received any bids for its businesses in the US and UK, its two biggest markets.
Cineworld shares slumped by 46% to 2.1p in early trading on Friday, before recovering to be 21% down at 3.2p. Cineworld was trading above 220p at the end of 2019, just before the coronavirus pandemic.
While potential buyers have expressed “some strategic interest” in its full business – Cineworld has said it is focused on proposals for the whole group – bids that have been submitted have mainly been for theatres in central Europe, eastern Europe and Israel.
“The company is reviewing such proposals in conjunction with its advisers and key stakeholders,” the cinema operator said on Friday. “Based on the proposals received to date, it is not expected that any sale transaction will provide any recovery for the holders of the company’s equity interests.”
Earlier this month it emerged that London-headquartered Vue International, Europe’s largest privately held cinema chain, had secured backing from its financial backers to submit a bid.
Cineworld filed for US bankruptcy protection, known as Chapter 11, last September when it succumbed to almost $6bn (£5bn) in debt it could not finance as pandemic restrictions shut cinemas.
Under Chapter 11, a struggling company is temporarily sheltered from creditors, and Cineworld updated the status of talks with its backers over a deal to move out of bankruptcy protection later this year.
“Discussions between the company and certain of its stakeholders regarding a potential plan are progressing,” the company said. “While the discussions suggest that there is a route to the company emerging from the Chapter 11 cases, in light of the level of existing debt that is expected to be released under any plan, the company does not believe that there will be sufficient creditor support for a plan that contemplates any recovery for equity interests.”
Cineworld was co-founded and is run by Mooky Greidinger, who along with his family controls 20% of the business. Other major investors include the Chinese Jangho Group, Polaris Capital Management, Aberdeen Standard Investments and Aviva Investors.
In January, Cineworld denied it had attempted to sell some of its cinemas in the US and Europe to AMC Entertainment, the owner of the rival Odeon chain.
“Is the end in sight for Cineworld as a listed business?” asked Russ Mould, the investment director at the analysts AJ Bell. “We could see a break-up of the group even though Cineworld has previously said it had no plans to sell individual assets.
“Cineworld has paid the price for being too aggressive with its growth ambitions, weighed down by significant debt when the pandemic struck and the subsequent reopening of the cinema industry being too weak to repair its finances.”
Cineworld has 128 cinemas in the UK, under the Cineworld and Picturehouse brands, all of which are operating as normal.
