The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Or not...
The last paragraph in Bonker's post is quite possibly the most truthful statement ever made on this board. The ones who offer you financial advice on here are the ones that want to benefit from it and there are a LOT of snakes and vultures after their prey right now.
Best of luck with what you decide to do.
Sugar coating? That's simply not true at all. If you offer something of value, the people will come. Cineworld aren't struggling because of a cost of living crisis, they're currently struggling because the film slate isn't there. Top Gun: Maverick, Minions, Jurassic World and Thor Love and Thunder attendance figures have all proved that. When cinemas offer high quality large screen worthy films, the public flock to them.
Plus the fact cinemas are notoriously recession proof.
I don't understand why the Cineworld marketing department havn't come up with new creative ideas if they know the slate is lacking for the next couple of months. They could easily promote the crap out a huge Marvel Movie Month in all the local media where you pay a one off fee and you can watch all the movies you want within the Infinity Saga on different days. Perfect kids birthday party opportunities, plus it's the school holidays so hype it up with dressed up Marvel characters in the foyers like they do for Star Wars releases, encourage everybody to dress up, competitions and have some fun with it. Then create a new revenue stream from all the ridiculous amounts of Marvel merchandise you could pressure the parents into buying. This could obviously apply to Star Wars and any other movie franchises too.
Even mix it up a little and organise huge e-sports gamer competitions for all cinemas then host a final somewhere for the winners of each local cinema to compete. If it's successful, then make it an annual event! This would certainly encourage youngsters into enjoying the cinema experience more often.
Why aren't ideas like this being thought of?
Appreciated Bonks, keep up the good fight eh!
Appreciated and vice-versa. I only said it to you because your usual high quality posts were slipping and being marred by something so trivial and unnecessary. I never meant you any malice my friend.
Recently lost my Mum unexpectedly so believe it or not all this is a welcome distraction! I'm doing alright otherwise cheers, hope all's well for you!
You seem bothered by what others want to do with their own money?
InsiderInfo28, you're overly emotional and appear obsessed with an unknown person on a bulletin board, it's disturbing. Give your head a wobble and find yourself some self-respect man.
For god's sake grow up InsiderInfo28, you're acting like a child.
Poor show NOFEAR, I honestly thought you were better than this. Once very much respected here and you just blew it all in one post.
@calamari
When an RNS uses non-committal wording like 'may' and 'possible' I tend to read between the lines and know that usually not everything is always as it appears. You do you though.
I'm definitely buying in if I can get a decent price to get my avg down then potentially play the market. RNS was another vague ifs and maybes, it also confirmed that the WSJ article was nothing other than speculation (as suspected) and that nothing has been decided or off the table. AMC were in exactly the same position as Cineworld are now with the media writing them off with constant BS articles (fully expecting more to appear...) and look at them now.
Definitely incredibly risky (always has been) but these are the times you potentially look back with regret of what could have been so it's totally worth the risk for me. Not suggesting for a minute others should do the same, this has always been a zero emotional play for me so I wouldn't be gutted if I lost it all. Fat lady ain't sung yet! :D
GLA whatever you decide to do!
Here's another audio interview with Gladstone regarding AMC (March 2021):
https://gimletmedia.com/amp/shows/the-journal/llhd6mm
In particular listen to him around 5min 50sec regarding his comments about Adam Aron (AMC's CEO) when he was talking about 'preparing for bankruptcy'. All very similar in theme to what he reported in his recent Cineworld article:
'(Adam Aron) was adamant, he was totally committed to doing everything he could to avoiding bankruptcy and he said I know there's a real possibility and that we had to prepare for that possibility and create a contingency plan.'
For me it sounds like Mooky and co most likely HAVE engaged with Kirkland & Ellis lawyers and AlixPartners to advise on the bankruptcy process and this is where Gladstone's source/leak has come from. But remember this could be nothing more than the Cineworld board preparing a contingency plan for a worst case scenario and a bearish journalist jumping to the wrong conclusion, for whatever reason... This also tallies with ONE of the several 'strategic options' they stated were currently being discussed in the RNS on Thursday.
The only concrete facts we have right now are:
1. Cineworld have opened new cinemas recently which is not something an insolvent company facing bankruptcy would do.
2. They're completely up to date paying landlords their rent - so no sign of money being shored up.
3. The information stated in the latest RNS.
Until Cineworld release anything new and it's directly from the horse's mouth, EVERYTHING being posted here is completely speculative from biased personal opinion so should be treated as such.
I suggest anyone financially advising posters what they do need to do here, needs to stop. Firstly it's absolutely non of your business what others do with their money and secondly it's against the rules of this website, so any posts breaking them should be reported.
BBC Interviewer: So what will happen now, they'll file what is known in the US as chapter 11, what does that mean?
AG: Chapter 11 is an American process to reorganise a company into restructuring its debts. It doesn't mean the company is going to go away, it just means the company will likely have different owners in the future. So what you have to understand is it isn't that the company is going to be liquidated. There could be some changes and certainly some assets sold but it's more that the company will emerge from bankruptcy one day with a new set of owners and with less debt.
BBC Interviewer: And will all those creditors who are owed that $4 billion, will they all get some money back?
AG: Not necessarily, you know the way it works there's a limited pie and there's a lot of people that want theirs out of the pie and there's sort of a pecking order as to who gets there's first. You know the American chapter process is designed to as fairly as possible allocate value and to make sure that people get paid back what they should be. Keep in mind there are various stakeholders and different people have different claims given where they are in the pecking order.
BBC Interviewer: Alex Gladstone from Wolf Street Journal thank you very much for coming on and telling us about that.
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cineworld-struggles-to-recover-from-the-pandemic/id292651411?i=1000576649823
I also found a BBC's World Business Report podcast interviewing him on Friday:
I've transcribed it (link to it below):
BBC Interviewer: But first let's start by talking about the movies. It's been a blockbuster summer already not least because of this movie (film audio plays). Top Gun Maverick starring Tom Cruise it's made nearly $1.5 billion since it opened at the end of May but it's not been enough to save the world's second largest cinema chain, Cineworld.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that it is preparing to file for bankruptcy, it's got $4 billion worth of debt. Alexander Gladstone broke the story for the Wall Street Journal, he joins us now.
BBC Interviewer: Alex, thanks for joining us on World Business Report. What's gone wrong, I thought people were flocking back to cinemas after the pandemic?
AG: Well thank you for having me. I think the issue is it's been a little bit too little too late even though cinema attendances are recovering, Cineworld was just so badly damaged by the, I guess, two and a half years of the pandemic and there's a lot of debt and people aren't coming back enough for it to avoid insolvency. And also, you know, while Top Gun was a big hit, looking forward to the back half of this year I think there's a limited slate of blockbuster films coming out. There's going to be Black Panther, which people are anticipating is going to be a big one but there's not that much. So for Cineworld I think they just have to restructure at this point.
BBC Interviewer: We've mentioned Top Gun: Maverick has made $1.5 billion, Jurassic World has made $1.6 billion, Minions $1.1 billion, Thor: Love and Thunder, that's made $0.5 billion. Are those figures just not as high as they were before the pandemic or is there something wrong with Cineworld? You mention that $4 billion worth of debt that it's got.
AG: You know it's not just of course the big blockbusters making the huge difference but the issue is that they had for so long they had their theatres shut and even if there are big blockbusters coming out, it's just not enough for them, and also keep in mind they're still not where they were pre-pandemic. They've recovered from their lows but they still haven't come back to where they were before. And so I just think with the movie slate, even if there's a blockbuster here or there it's not enough content to keep them solvent at this point.
BBC Interviewer: Lots of cinema-goers have been responding to your story on social media saying that ticket prices are too high, do you think that has put people off going especially at the moment with this cost of living crisis that we've got across the world?
AG: Well I mean you can fold it into a lot of other things. Of course with inflation people might be more cautious about splurging on a night out at the movies so I think that's part of it but that's not the full picture here, you know.
Cont.
There has been some utter garbage posted on this board over the past couple of days, I've genuinely never seen it so bad. Rampers, derampers, day-traders and most obviously shorters blatantly lying claiming CINE is already bankrupt to help their cause.
We need to concentrate on the facts.
All this fear and speculation came about firstly from a vaguely worded RNS last Wednesday stating the BoD 'remains in active discussions with various stakeholders and is evaluating various strategic options to both obtain additional liquidity and potentially restructure its balance sheet through a comprehensive deleveraging transaction.'.
This was then followed by ONE single breaking Wall Street Journal news article on Friday written by Alexander Gladstone who stated it was 'according to people familiar with the matter', yet no direct quotes or anything stated concrete in fact. The remaining press have jumped on it and regurgitated it as their own.
(https://www.wsj.com/articles/regal-cinemas-owner-cineworld-prepares-for-bankruptcy-filing-11660910944?mod=newsviewer_click)
Alexander Gladstone has been reporting on cinema companies over the last couple of years throughout the pandemic and many of his WSJ articles have been particularly bearish on both Cineworld and AMC's demise (you only have to Google his name and relevant cinema company) or look at his Twitter feed to see some of the responses as to what other cinema investors think of him:
https://twitter.com/gladstonea/status/1560652301618106368?s=21&t=xKXc-aYTmUhdRmYlCM1FFA
Were the 23 other posts you've made today all of a similar theme not enough that you felt compelled to create yet another thread?
You're quite clearly unhinged.
@Toddjustin
I wish posts like yours could be 'Unrecommended' as it'd save us a whole load of reading time knowing that you're utterly clueless. Go look at the attendance figures for the blockbusters that have come out post pandemic, they more than prove your post to be sheer nonsense. When high quality films worth watching on the big screen are released people flock to the cinemas. Blame the studios for lack of content if you're looking to lay blame at anyone.
If Cineworld's going bankrupt somebody needs to let the guy in charge of their Twitter account know!
https://twitter.com/cineworld/status/1560668447125692416?s=21&t=Pshu6G76hsTIaGzRnzLrlw
I hope to god they were at least being paid something to post that amount of crap, even if it's just a token gesture for all that time wasted in their menial lives.
It's truly staggering they walk among us.