Hands To Sell Cinema Chain?

Investor Guy Hands appears interested in offloading another of his assets, although this time he would come out better than he did with EMI.

The Sunday Times says Hands’ Terra Firma – his private investment vehicle – has appointed Wall Street banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to advise on a possible sale of its Odeon & UCI cinema chain.

In 2010 Terra Firma tried to sell off the chain but the bids didn’t meet expectations. Hands hung on and refinanced it.

His company had created the cinema chain in 2004 by separately acquiring Odeon and UCI and merging them into one unit.

The Sunday Times has British rival Vue, Chinese operator Wanda – which previously acquired America’s AMC chain – and private equity house BC Partners among the likely suitors.

BC Partners has previously shown an interest in buying Odeon.