PRINT THIS PAGE US buy-out firm Blackstone buys UK cinema chain Cine-UK14/10/2004. Source: AltAssets. 
 US buy-out firm Blackstone has bought UK cinema chain Cine-UK just weeks after being thwarted by rival Terra Firma in its efforts to pick up Odeon. The deal is understood to be worth around E175m.
Blackstone bought the chain, the fifth largest operator in the UK, from a consortium led by JP Morgan Partners, RIT Capital Partners, and Botts & Company. The firm has ambitions to participate in the ongoing consolidation of the UK cinema sector.
Lawrence H Guffey, a senior managing director at Blackstone, said: 'We believe that the industry fundamentals are solid, with continued growth in admissions fuelled by increasingly strong content from the studios.'
Cine-UK was founded in 1995, since when it has opened more multiplex cinemas than any other exhibitor in the country. It now operates 384 screens from 34 multiplex cinemas and employs more than 2,000 people.
Blackstone has been one of the most active private equity investors throughout Europe over the past three, spearheading the growing US involvement across the continent. Earlier this year it single-handedly took private German chemicals business Celanese in an E3bn transaction that was one of the largest so far this year.
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