Cineworld Group PLC (LSE:CINE) said it is looking at “a number” of proposals to buy some or all of the group, but that it does not expect shareholders to see any recovery.
The cinema group, which has continued to operate as usual across its Regal, Cinema City, Picture House and Planet cinemas on both sides of the Atlantic in recent months, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US in September after struggling badly during the pandemic and finding it hard to recover since under the weight of its debt pile.
As part of attempts to find a way out, the operating business has been put up for sale and the company said in a statement today that it has received a number of non-binding proposals from “potential transaction counterparties”.
It stressed that none of these proposals involves an all-cash bid for the entire business, and that any sale of the whole group “would not include the sale of the equity interests in Cineworld itself” and so would not be subject to the rules of the London takeover code.
Bosses have repeatedly told shareholders that any deal was likely to result in “very significant dilution of existing equity interests”.
Privately owned European rival Vue is apparently an interested party, it was reported earlier this month, backed with new financial firepower.
Emergence from Chapter 11 might occur during the first half of the year, Cineworld said, but any sale process may delay this.