21 Investimenti exits Space Cinema to Vue in €105m deal

Under the vendors' stewardship The Space Cinema has undertaken an acquisitive strategy, purchasing cinemas from Planet and Cinecity, while also building new sites.

Additionally, the company increased the retail spaces within its cinemas, in order to increase non-ticket revenues.

Vue is currently owned by Omers Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corporation, which bought the group from Doughty Hanson for £935m in June 2013.

Under successive private equity owners, Vue has continued expanding its international presence through strategic acquisitions.

Previous funding
21 Investimenti and Mediaset acquired Medusa Mutlicinema and Warner Village Cinemas in September 2009, before rebranding the company as The Space Cinema. 21 Investimenti took a 51% stake, with Mediaset owning the remaining 49%.

The vendors aimed to consolidate the Italian market, which had previously been highly fragmented due to what it described as a lack of evolution in the cinema industry over the previous 40 years.

Company
Founded in 2009 with the merger of Medusa Multicinema and Warner Village, The Space Cinema is a Rome-based cinema chain with 36 sites across Italy. The company generated revenues of €170m in 2013 and claims to have a 20% share of the Italian cinema market.

People
Giuseppe Corrado is president of The Space Cinema.

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• Topics
• Exits
• Consumer
• Southern Europe
• Expansion
• Italy
• 21 Investimenti
• OMERS
• Trade sale
• Acquisition finance