Cineworld shares fell as low as 15.64 pounds
in London and were down 31% at 27.41 in
morning trading.
The industry had been rocked by the pandemic
— first being closed for months and then
operating at a fraction of previous capacity,
said David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets.
Cineworld had also been highly leveraged,
having largely funded its acquisition of Regal
Entertainment in 2018 through debt.
“Today the company confirmed they will be
assessing their liquidity options, and it plans
to update the market on the resumption of
business in due course,” he said. “It seems that
Cineworld is hunkering down and they are
holding onto their current liquidity position,
with the view to probably having a reduced
service when they re-open.”
Greidinger doesn’t regret reopening in August
— at the time there was a solid release schedule
and he believed that New York would have
eased restrictions sooner.
Now there is, “Not much to do but to wait,”
Greidinger said. And he hopes New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo will give “the greenlight soon.”
The business, he said, needs a set blockbuster
calendar extending six to eight weeks in the
future in order to reopen. Greidinger hopes that
that might be settled before Christmas, in time
for “Wonder Woman 1984.”
“I will be the happiest man to open the cinemas
for ‘Wonder Woman,” he said. “But we will
also need to look beyond ‘Wonder Woman’ to
January and February.”