Acquisition

RNS Number : 4618E

Cineworld Group plc

07 April 2011

 



Embargoed for release at 7am

7 April 2011

CINEWORLD GROUP plc

Acquisition of Cinesur Circuito Sánchez-Ramade, S.L.

Cineworld Group plc ("Cineworld") today announces that it has signed a Share Purchase Agreement with Compania Meridional De Inversiones, S.L. and Compania Meridional De Inversiones Y Patrimonio, S.L. to acquire 100% of the share capital of Spanish cinema operator Cinesur Circuito Sánchez-Ramade, S.L. ('Cinesur').

Gross assets of 18.6 million Euros are being acquired. Completion of the transaction is subject to certain conditions precedent being satisfied. The purchase consideration will be funded by Cineworld from its new loan facility, put in place on 21 March.

Cinesur is the fifth largest operator in Spain and the largest in the Andalucia region. The transaction comprises eleven multiplexes and a total of 136 screens.

Spain, with its population of 47 million, is the fifth largest cinema market in Europe with annual revenues of circa €800m in 2009  and average cinema attendance per person of circa 2.38 times per year compared to 2.81 times per year in the UK (source: Dodona Research).

Commenting on the acquisition, Stephen Wiener, Chief Executive Officer of Cineworld, said:

"We are delighted to be making our first continental acquisition, taking us into a market which we believe has good growth prospects. Cinesur is an attractive platform for growing market share in a country that is serviced by many smaller cinema operators.

"We look forward to developing Cinesur to bring it in line with our market-leading UK operations, where a wide range of programming, excellent customer service and creative marketing saw us take the position of no. 1 at the box office in the UK for 2010".

Enquiries:

Cineworld	[phone]
Steve Wiener, CEO / Richard Jones, CFO
M:Communications	[phone]
Elly Williamson

 

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