National Amusements sells Russian operations to Shari Redstone and equity firm

posted by CSWalczak on January 12, 2010 at 9:57 am

LOS ANGELES, CA — National Amusements, which recently sold off several dozen theaters to Rave Cinemas, is selling the five theaters it operated in Moscow and one in St. Petersburg to Shari Redstone and UFG Private Equity.

The Russian circuit, which Shari Redstone co-founded with Paul Heth in 2002 and has been her passion project, is made up of six theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg, five of which are the top-grossing cinemas in Russia.

Redstone said she planned to aggressively expand the theater chain under its established Russian brand name Kinostar. Redstone, who bought the chain with Charles Ryan of UFG Private Equity of Russia, will be chairman of the new entity, and Heth will serve as president.

There is more in the LA Times.