Cineworld said it is considering a listing or a partial listing of its movie chain Regal on Wall Street, in an effort to boost its liquidity at a time when it is burning through huge amounts of money every month.
“US equity capital markets are the largest and most liquid in the world and include a large number of publicly listed cinema companies including peer group companies,” the world’s second-largest cinema chain after AMC said in its first-half results statement.
The majority of FTSE 250-listed Cineworld’s revenue comes from the United States since its purchase of Regal in 2018.
Cineworld’s pretax losses for the first half ended June narrowed to $576.4m from $1.64bn last year. The company expects business to improve as vaccination programmes continue and restrictions ease further in the second half of 2021.
The company, saddled with a net debt of $8.44bn as of the end of June, had to close all its cinemas at one point last year, leaving thousands of people out of work, as it took drastic measures to preserve cash to get through the crisis. Almost all its cinemas were…
