Regal Entertainment says able to take advantage of distressed deals, eyes acquisitions

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Portland, Ore., March 3 - Regal Entertainment Group believes its conservative leverage ratio puts the company in a competitive position to take advantage of distressed opportunities that may be presented in the next two years, Amy Miles, chief financial officer of Regal, said during a Tuesday presentation at the Deutsche Bank 2009 Media and Telecom Conference in Palm Beach, Fla.

Regal is approached on a fairly regular basis by developers whose original exhibitors have backed out of deals, Mike Campbell, chief executive officer of Regal, said during the presentation.

If it were to take advantage of such cases, Regal would look to enhance the terms of the deals, he said.

Regarding potential acquisitions of other companies, Campbell said Regal believes opportunities are present. Regal looks for mid-sized transactions that include relatively new assets, he said.

When asked during the presentation about how the company weighs balance sheet strength against offering a dividend, Miles said Regal no longer thinks about leverage merely as a total amount, as it did in the past, but now also considers whether it could use some of its dividend funds to delever in a prudent manner.

The company has $200 million of convertible securities due in March 2011.

"Cutting the dividend allows us, if we so choose, to not have to [go to the] credit market to satisfy that obligation in a couple of years," Miles said.

Regal is a Knoxville, Tenn.-based motion picture exhibitor.

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