BC, Omers Said in Talks to Buy Odeon Cinema Chain From Hands
BC Partners Ltd. and Omers Private Equity Inc. entered exclusive talks to buy the Odeon and UCI cinema chain from Guy Hands’s Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., said two people with knowledge of the talks.
A purchase by the U.K. and Canadian funds may value the company at as much as 1.2 billion pounds ($1.95 billion), said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Terra Firma may also decide to refinance the business instead of selling it, one person said.
BC Partners, the London-based buyout fund manager, and Omers, the buyout arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, approached Terra Firma about buying Odeon and UCI after failing to acquire Vue Entertainment Ltd., the U.K.’s third-largest cinema operator. Vue was purchased by rival private-equity firm Doughty Hanson & Co. in November.
Terra Firma, which in February had to cede control of EMI Group Ltd. to Citigroup Inc. (C), bought and merged Odeon and UCI in 2004 in a 650 million-euro ($939.5 million) deal, according to Terra Firma’s website.
Officials at BC Partners and Terra Firma declined to comment. An official at Omers couldn’t be immediately reached.
The talks between Terra Firma, BC and Omers were reported earlier today by the Financial Times.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in London at achassany@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net
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