Executives of Regal parent Cineworld, led by CEO Mooky Greidinger, have agreed to a payout in the $30 million range, Deadline has confirmed, in the event that they leave leave the company as it prepares to exit Chapter 11.
Documents filed earlier this year during ongoing bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas indicated that current management had previously signed a contingency consultancy agreement with lenders to ensure a swift exit from Chapter 11. There’s been no final decision on who will run the company, but their exit is likely.
At a hearing this morning, Judge Marvin Isgur set a confirmation date for late June and Cineworld is expected to emerge from Chapter 11 in the first half of July.
The proceedings today were mostly taken up with protests by non-inside shareholders of Cineworld. The company’s stock is publicly traded and widely held but, as is often the case in bankruptcy restructuring, shareholders saw their investments erased.
The FT first reported the exit agreement, saying lenders agreed to pay Greidinger, his brother and deputy chief executive Israel Greidinger, and other members of their executive team a total of between $30 million and $35 million.
Cineworld, the second biggest exhibitor in the world, racked up significant debt from a string of acquisitions, including Regal in 2017, and in the end wasn’t able to weather the hit from Covid, which shuttered theaters, and the subsequent slow box office recovery.
It filed for Chapter 11 last September. In May, it announced a plan to raise $2.26 billion as part of its bid to exit bankruptcy after reaching a settlement with a group of minority lenders.