Dutch fund manager Annexum is in talks to buy a portfolio of six cinemas in the Netherlands from French film distributor Pathé, according to two market sources.
Pathé put up for sale the circa €125 million portfolio as part of a sale-and-leaseback, as first reported by CoStar News.
ABN AMRO has offered to finance the purchase at 55% loan to value, according to the first source. The five-year loan comes with a margin between 2.5% and 3%.
During the sales process, investors could bid on all six cinemas or individual ones. They are in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Arnhem, Zwolle and Nijmegen and come with a 20-year, triple-net lease, guaranteed by the parent company. Together, they produce €7.34 million in annual rent, excluding VAT. The cinemas are among the top 15 in the Netherlands by visitor numbers and turnover.
The eventual purchase price should reflect a net initial yield of 6%, as reported.
Pathé had tried to sell the portfolio just before the pandemic hit and cinemas were shut by lockdowns. The sale was pulled and then resumed earlier this year as restrictions were lifted.
As streaming services such as Netflix lose subscribers, cinema operators hope to lure people back to the big screens with blockbusters such as Top Gun Maverick with Tom Cruise. The film, which was only released in cinemas, has been a hit everywhere. Pathé welcomed the 500,000th visitor to the film three weeks after its release in the Netherlands.
A spokeswoman for Pathé confirmed the company is selling the cinemas but declined to comment further, while Annexum did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.