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Will Mooky and co aquire Cineworld's assets from the administrators for a knockdown price and take the company private? Mega rich founder and CEO of ASOS and Koovs, Lord Waheed Ali did just that with Koovs. The company lived on, Waheed Ali did very well out of it, but the small shareholders were left with nothing. Shareholders watched for over a year as the share price dwindled into the low single pennies, convinced Waheed Ali would look after them and inject more of his own vast fortune into the business to save it (as a last resort if he couldn't secure funding from elsewhere). But he didn't - the company ended up in administration with a lot of very angry shareholders expressing their disgust on the Koovs BB. They were particularly angered by the fact not only had they lost all their money, but the CEO, Waheed Ali had acquired the assets from the administrators and was taking Koovs private. He did very well out of it, but the shareholders were wiped out. Unfortunately in these circumstances it's the small shareholders who end up getting shafted the most. Anyone who's still in this, of course it's your money and your choice, but if it ends up in administration which now looks pretty much certain, you'll almost certainly be wiped out and be left wishing you'd sold when you had the chance. Even a few pence for your shares is better than 0p. I would also say there's a high risk the shares could be suspended at some point soon - and given the situation, there's no guarantee such a suspension would be lifted, ie, once suspended the shares may not trade again if the suspension is due to imminent bankruptcy.

Cineworld, the world’s second-largest cinema chain, is preparing to file for bankruptcy

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/19/cineworld-preparing-to-file-for-bankruptcy-following-pandemic-rout

It's disgraceful the shares weren't suspended earlier considering the huge volatility, and the fact they haven't even bothered to release an RNS to either confirm or deny the bankruptcy speculation, is also extremely poor and just comes across as they can't be bothered or simply don't give a monkeys about the shareholders. The guardian article says "is preparing to file for bankruptcy" (suggesting it's a matter of fact, not speculation?). Again, you would think the company would rush out a statement in response to this, especially if it was a false and malicious rumour you would think they'd be keen to quash the rumour. The fact they've so far stayed silent on the matter, says to me the rumour is probably true - there's no excuse for not releasing an RNS though. If it's bankruptcy, as is usually the case, shareholders will are likely to be wiped out. Even 4p is better than 0p.

The company needs to update the market as to what the hell is going on! Absolutely abysmal communication. They need to confirm or deny if that report regarding bankruptcy is true. I'm also amazed the shares weren't suspended today - at one point the shares were down 80% and yet trading was allowed to continue! This is not an investment I'd want to be locked into over the weekend, next week almost certainly won't be pretty either.

For the love of god, don't throw any more money at this. It's finished and you'll just end up losing even more money.

Shaz and co, you should have listened to the critics could have saved yourselves a lot of money.

My best advice would be get out while you can, anything is better than massive dilution followed by administration and shareholder wipeout.

"i'm grasping straws at the moment but I think this can still turn around"

Are you in the beer garden again Tegop?

I've been saying this is a strong sell for over a year shaz. If you'd listened to the critics instead of going on the attack all the time you'd have saved yourself a lot of money!

After the recent sucker rally to 22p and today's dead cat bounce, I don't think there's any more money to be made here, unless you're a shorter of course. With the threat of "very significant dilution" to come, this is almost certainly going lower, much lower, all the way to the low single digits would be my guess.

Daytraders and bottom pickers are helping push this up, but it's nothing more than a dead cat bounce that's likely to belly flop back to earth in the coming days.

Hexam still doesn't get it.

Phyl "if Cine decide to dilute at 8p where on earth would this leave the SP?"

Hexam "About 9p"

The company adds tens, possibly hundreds of millions more shares and he thinks the share price will actually go up!
Is it possible to get any more stupid and clueless?

Example
A company has a market cap of £100m
The company has 1m shares in issue
Share price = market cap ÷ number of shares in issue (share price is £100)

A company has a market cap of £100m
The company increases shares in issue to 10m
Share price = market cap ÷ number of shares in issue (share price is £10)

A company has a market cap of £100m
The company increases shares in issue to 100m
Share price = market cap ÷ number of shares in issue (share price is £1)

Despite what Hexam thinks, market cap DOES NOT change - but dilution DOES result in a lower share price.

If this dilution happens, considering the current share price it seems likely we could be talking sub 5p a share, possibly even 1-3p a share. With significantly more shares in issue, the share price would struggle to move up by much, certainly it would move at a very much slower pace than everyone has been used to. And that's not attractive to investors - and if buying activity slows down, the shares become more difficult to sell - again, not attractive to investors. And if investors stay away, the company may find it harder to raise funds in the future - lenders don't like low volume, illiquid stocks. The company isn't in a great place right now, as we saw in today's RNS and share price movement. And things could get a whole lot worse in the not too distant future. There's also the appeal and how in the hell they would pay that huge fine if they lose - and they've already lost the case once which imo doesn't bode well. All things considered, I just can't see the company ever getting out of the hole it's in. The easiest and seemingly most sensible way to proceed is simply to allow the company to go into administration and be done with it. Other operators would no doubt swoop acquiring the company's assets at a knockdown price, so at least some of the cinemas would live on, albeit under a different name. Unfortunately administration would likely result in wipeout for existing holders, at best holders might get a penny or so back per share held (something like that) although I wouldn't hold your breath, usually holders are wiped out. If the company massively dilutes it's holders and tries to struggle on, I still think it'd only be a matter of time before it went bust. A FTSE small cap with huge debt, huge numbers of shares in issue and a struggling share price is never going to make an exciting investment - as a listed company, it'd just fade into obscurity along with all the other low volume, illiquid small caps. Can a stronger film slate perhaps later this year or early next somehow turn things around and save the company? I can't see it myself.

"The warning from Cineworld stands in stark contrast to the performance of AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest cinema group and owner of the Odeon chain in the UK, which said the new Top Gun and Dr Strange films had fuelled a doubling of ticket sales in the US"

"The company, which has a $12.8bn market value compared with Cineworld’s £154m, said July had the highest monthly attendance in US cinemas since before the pandemic"

“This raises the rather awkward question as to what AMC are doing well that Cineworld clearly aren’t, as both can’t be right,” said Michael Hewson, chief analyst at CMC Markets. “Either those two films were very popular, or they weren’t. And if AMC saw record July admissions, Cineworld probably needs to ask why it didn’t. That’s the question shareholders need to pose to management.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/17/cineworld-shares-blockbusters-admissions-cinema-covid

I really don't see this as a buying opportunity. It's a get the hell out while you still can opportunity. That's genuinely how i see it.

So only slightly worse results than a year ago and yet the share price is £10 lower than it was a year ago? I'd say the fall is somewhat overdone.

This will end up with tens, possibly hundreds of millions more shares in issue and a share price in the low pennies, maybe 3-5p. After that it'll only be a matter of time before it goes bust. There isn't a hope in hell Cineworld will survive much beyond Christmas, imho.

A lot of people have lost money because of rampers like you RS. And you're still at it.

This is not a buying opportunity no matter how low it goes.

I fully expect after today's RNS for this to be sub 10p within a matter of weeks, if not days. It's finished imho.

It'll probably tank today but it's the threat of "very significant dilution" that could really send this barreling downwards into the single digits. Depends how much dilution they're talking about.