RE: Oversold4 Sep 2022 19:27
Like I said there's been a bad overreaction with this stock. Attendance levels are still good and picking up as the days go by. It was clearly stated in an earlier RNS that because of the lack of blockbuster movies this autumn, attendance levels are expected to be low.
For this reason, Cineworld has been taking proactive steps to ensure it has the balance sheet strength and flexibility to adapt to market conditions. This includes significant previously disclosed operational and financial initiatives to manage costs and enhance liquidity. The Group believes these steps are required to optimize its ability to maximize enterprise value as part of the recovery in the cinema industry.
The company will be looking to restructure it's balance sheet through a comprehensive deleveraging transaction. Any deleveraging transaction will likely result in very significant dilution of existing equity interests in Cineworld. A deleveraging transaction means to reduce outstanding debt without incurring any new debt. The goal of deleveraging is to reduce the relative percentage of a business's balance sheet funded by liabilities. This was clearly stated in an RNS back in August. So it shouldn't be no surprise that now heading into the autumn the press have over egged it and made it sound as if Cineworld are in a bad financial position and are about to file for bankuptcy. This is not the case at the present moment.
The way I see it this means Cineworld will be trimming down their outlets and laying off staff, or they could try to raise funds. Forget a placing, at 5p a share the dilution of shares would be astronomical. I think the filing of bankruptcy will only happen if they lose their case to Cineplex and have to fork out $1.5B in compenasation. At this point we can rule out filing for bankruptcy, that is clear from the RNS back in August.