Slaughter and May is advising Cineworld in connection with the Chapter 11 cases for its US, UK and Jersey businesses

Slaughter and May is advising Cineworld Group plc in connection with the Chapter 11 cases for its US, UK and Jersey businesses.

The Cineworld Group is one of the largest cinema chains in the world, operating in 10 countries with 747 sites and 9,139 screens.

On 7 September 2022, Cineworld announced that Cineworld Group plc and certain of its subsidiaries that together operate its US, UK and Jersey businesses had commenced Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. As part of this process, Cineworld obtained commitments from a subset of its existing lenders for an approximately $1.94 billion debtor-in-possession financing facility. This will help to ensure Cineworld’s operations continue in the ordinary course while it seeks to implement a deleveraging transaction.

The Chapter 11 cases are focussed on Cineworld’s US, UK and Jersey businesses and will not affect Cineworld’s businesses in Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Israel. Slaughter and May also assisted with the implementation of an arrangement whereby a portion of the debtor-in-possession funding will be used by a newly incorporated Cineworld group entity to purchase the outstanding commitments under the separate facility advanced to fund the businesses in those jurisdictions.

Slaughter and May is working as part of an integrated team with Cineworld’s in-house legal team and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. PJT is acting as financial advisor to Cineworld in connection with the restructuring and AlixPartners is acting as restructuring advisor. Ashurst LLP and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP are acting as independent counsel to the Board of Cineworld (in relation to English and US law respectively).