Ster-Kinekor business rescue delayed again

Ster-Kinekor’s road to recovery from the financial fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a slight delay as business rescue practitioner, Steyn Smyth requested the deadline for the publication of its business rescue plan be extended to 21 January 2022.

Smyth said the delay is due to receiving an updated investment offer from London-based special situations investment firm, Blantyre Capital.

According to Smyth, the firm will be partnering with Cape Town- based specialist private credit investment management firm, Green Point Capital.

In October, he made the same request – on similar grounds – to extend the publication of the business rescue plan, then to 30 November 2021.

Smyth said the coming weeks will be used to finalise the discussions around the transaction and to assess how creditors will be affected.

“The extension will therefore enable the business rescue practitioner to finalise the business rescue plan but also to prevent the … voting meeting coinciding with the holiday period,” he said in a statement.

“We are very pleased to have received an amplified proposal from Blantyre Capital and Green Point Capital and look forward to dealing with the details in the next weeks so as to publish a plan for affected parties to subsequently vote on,” Smyth said.

The cinema group has been in business rescue since January this year.

The once-profitable business now exists as a shadow of its former self because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced it to close its doors for months.

Lockdown fallout

Harsh lockdown restrictions forced the company to close from end of March 2020 to August 2020.  After resuming in August, the cinema group was forced to operate under stringent curfews and capacity limitations.
Despite the challenges, Ster-Kinekor has come up with creative ways to stay afloat and attract back its customers, such as reviving the drive-in movie concept earlier this year.

In early November, the company reported a stable recovery in cinema conditions as more and more people started going back to cinemas.

The increase in attendance was largely supported by the uptake of vaccines in the country and new blockbusters hitting cinema screens.

However, with confirmation of the new Omicron Covid-19 variant and a surge in new infections ahead of the festive season, this peak part of the year for the cinema business could be at risk.

• This article was originally published by Moneyweb and is republished by TechCentral with permission