SBC Cinemas mooted to reel in Cine-UK

SBC Cinemas, which has grown rapidly from its Scottish roots into Britain’s biggest owner of multiplex venues, is believed to be targeting Cine-UK as its next acquisition.

According to trade sources, SBC will follow up its recent 250m purchase of Warner Village Cinemas with another deal in the next couple of months.

Cine-UK, which operates 276 screens at 25 sites is said to have put itself up for sale, along with Ster Century which has nine sites in Britain, Ireland and Spain.

Analysts are expecting further consolidation of the sector which was triggered by the 431m acquisition of Odeon, Britain’s largest chain, by a consortium headed by WestLB’s principal finance team and Robert Tchenguiz, the Iranian property developer who was among the bidders for Selfridges.

SBC’s deal with Warner added 36 cinemas to its existing eight, which includes its original site at Livingston. It was launched in 1999 and quickly added cinemas in other parts of the UK, as well as Taiwan and Portugal. It intends to rename the Warner chain as Vue.

SBC was created by former US-based cinema executives. The name is an abbreviation of Spean Bridge Cinemas and was chosen after a holiday to the Highland village of the same name by Stewart Blair, formerly of United Artists, who was one of the company founders. Tim Richards, previously with the Warner Brothers empire, is the chief executive.

The company’s plan is to revolutionise cinema-going by installing stadium-style seating with extra leg-room, top digital sound and large screens. It introduced easier ticket-buying facilities to eliminate queuing.

Others with plans to change cinema-going habits include easyGroup chairman Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who last month opened his first easyCinema in Milton Keynes.

Cinema-goers paid 20p each to become the inaugural customers at the 10-screen tangerine multiplex beside a car park, formerly run by UCI. It has been leased by the easyGroup in a 1m deal to extend the volume-led ethos that turned easyJet into Europe’s biggest budget airline. The no-frills principle is being applied to the cinema chain. Tickets are bought on a website and instead of ushers there are turnstiles.