Cineworld (CINE) has announced a mega-deal to buy Canadian cinema chain Cineplex for C$2.8bn (£1.6bn), funded with $2.3bn of new borrowing.
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The move will create the largest cinema operator in North America. It is not the group’s first massive deal in the region. In February 2018, it acquired US cinema chain Regal for $3.6bn (£2.7bn) and took the group’s debt pile from $378m in 2017 to £3.7bn at the end of 2018 or over $7bn, including lease liabilities. The level of borrowing coupled with tough trading has led disclosed short positions to spike, with the company currently the second most shorted UK-listed company, with positions against at 12.5 per cent of it’s issued share capital.
