Gazprom Media could purchase Cinema Park theater chain from Interros
MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - Vladimir Potanin's Interros could sell its last asset in the entertainment industry, a chain of Cinema Park movie theaters, and Gazprom Media could be the buyer, a market source told Interfax.
Sources of Russian newspaper Kommersant have also said the holding was the main contender for Cinema Park.
This deal follows Gazprom Media's previous purchase of ProfMedia from Interros at the end of last year.
Cinema Park controls 30 movie theaters, including 281 screening rooms and 226 equipped with digital projection equipment, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Perm, Novosibirsk, Ufa, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Vologda, Belgorod, Saratov, Voronezh, Ulyanovsk, Surgut and Kaliningrad. In 2011, Cinema Park purchased the Kinostar de Luxe chain (six cinema complexes in Moscow and St. Petersburg with multiple screening rooms) from UFG Private Equity, Shari Redstone and Paul Heth.
Cinema Park's overall revenue makes up 16% of the Russian box office, according to data from Nevafilm Research. Over 18 million viewers visit the theaters per year, and the company is ranked first on the Russian market by number of screens. Revenue was up 26% in 2012 at 7.6 billion rubles, and EBITDA - 55% at 1.9 billion rubles.
According to Kommersant sources, aside from Gazprom Media, other market participants could show an interest in purchasing Cinema Park. This includes shareholders from the chain Karo Film, Paul Heth and the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
Another source from the newspaper said that Interros itself could purchase the asset, swallowing up other chains like Karo Film or Formula Kino.
Andrei Safronyuk replaced Sergei Kitin as the CEO of Cinema Park in January of this year. Safronyuk was the head of Vimpelcom in Uzbekistan between 2010 and 2013.
