Picturehouse founder planning to buy chain from Cineworld - report

The founder of boutique cinema chain Picturehouse is reportedly hatching a plan to buy it back as part of a potential break-up of Cineworld.

According to Sky News, Lyn Goleby, who established Picturehouse nearly 35 years ago, has held discussions with Vue International about its offer to buy large chunks of Cineworld.

It was unclear on Tuesday whether Goleby and Vue had reached any form of agreement about the terms of a collaboration.

Vue is among a number of suitors for Cineworld, whose shares have collapsed since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last year.

Cineworld is running a formal auction of its assets, although it said last month that any sale of the assets was unlikely to realise any value for shareholders.

"The company has now received non-binding proposals from a number of potential transaction counterparties for some or all of the group's business," it said in a statement. "None of these proposals involves an all-cash bid for the entire business."

Picturehouse was bought by Cineworld in 2012 for just over £47m.