Publicly-traded in-theater advertising network National CineMedia may be delisted from the Nasdaq stock market if its share price doesn’t perk up.
An SEC filing said the company has received written notice from Nasdaq that it’s not in compliance with the $1 minimum bid price required for listing and has 180 days or risks being booted off the exchange. The stock must meet or exceed $1 for a minimum of ten consecutive business days by April 26, 2023 in order to stay. After that, it may be eligible for another 180-day compliance period. The company can also appeal a delisting determination to a Nasdaq hearings panel.
The shares closed near a low at around 39 cents. They were up at 42 cents in after-hours trading. Their 52-week high was $3.93.
The company led by Tom Lesinsky branched out from theater advertising during Covid but that remains its core. It has its fans on Wall Street but it’s shares have softened amid uncertainty around the exhibition business, a general slowdown in advertising, a bad time for showbiz shares that aren’t meme stocks, and more recently, a fight with its major shareholder and customer, Regal.
Late last month NCM sued Regal, whose parent Cineworld is working through bankruptcy. Regal is looking to tear up its NMC contracts, hire another firm or take the ads business in house to shore up its finances, which it says is part of the bankruptcy process. Regal noted in bankruptcy court documents that it had worries about NCM’s financial viability. NCM accused the chain of “weaponizing” Chapter 11.
NCM said in today’s filing it is “currently evaluating available options for regaining compliance, including but not limited to, implementing a reverse stock split in connection with a special meeting of the stockholders, or the the 2023 annual meeting. “There can be no assurance that the Company will regain compliance with the Bid Price Rule or maintain compliance with any of the other Nasdaq continued listing requirements.”