Creditors of British cinema operator Cineworld Group have held discussions about splitting up the group and selling operations in Eastern Europe, including Romania, sources close to the file told Bloomberg.

Major creditors of Cineworld, which filed for bankruptcy in a Texas court in September, are considering selling the Cinema City, Yes Planet and Rav-Chen movie theater chains, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Offers of around $1 billion have the best chance of being considered by Cineworld Group’s creditors, although offers of $600-$700 million could be submitted, given the revenues generated from operations in Eastern Europe. However, sources said a formal sale process had not begun and there was no certainty a deal would be reached.

Cineworld’s Eastern European assets include 112 of the UK group’s approximately 751 cinemas, which operate in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Israel. However, Cineworld’s most important assets are the Regal division’s 511 theaters in the US, which were acquired in 2016 for $3.6 billion.

The Covid-19 pandemic has closed cinemas around the world and severely affected film production, and Cineworld has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, Cineworld’s Rest of the World segment, which is the operations considered for sale, recorded an operating profit of $124 million. Last year, the same operations generated a loss of $23 million, after a negative result of $172 million in 2020.

Cinema City is the largest operator of cinemas in Romania and is part of the Cineworld group, the second largest cinema chain in the world. Cinema City Romania operates 27 multiplexes with a total of 247 screens in 20 cities of the country: Bucharest, Arad, Bacău, Baia Mare, Braila, Buzău, Cluj, Constanta, Deva, Drobeta-Turnu-Severin, Galati, Iasi, Piatra Neamc , Pitesti, Ploiesti, Rimniku Vilca, Suceava, Tirgu Jiu, Tirgu Mures and Timisoara.

(Source: Agerpres)