Activist investor Windward Management has called on Canadian exhibition giant Cineplex to pursue share repurchases and assets sales to boost shareholder returns.
“Over the past year, we have had multiple meetings with the management team and have shared our views on value creation. While we believe we are generally aligned, we are frustrated by the absence of a sense of urgency exhibited by the Company’s leadership,” Windward said in an open letter to Toronto-based Cineplex made public on Monday.
Windward, which owns around 7 percent of the fifth-largest movie theatre chain in North America and the largest circuit in Canada, saluted Cineplex for navigating an ongoing recovery from the impact of the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood strikes on its business. “Cineplex’s prudent decisions to monetize one-third of its Scene+ loyalty program stake for $60 million during the depths of COVID, divest non-core assets for $155 million at the end of 2023, and refinance its debt ensured the company could survive at a time when several other exhibitors went bankrupt,” the activist shareholder wrote.
But Windward added Cineplex could do more to boost value creation, includin