Charles Raymond: Last News

Ben Croll Founded in 1966, CGR Cinemas has since grown into France’s second-largest exhibition chain, boasting more than 700 screens across the country and a premium export branch in the guise of ICE Theaters. Since the beginning, the business has both remained in the hands of the Raymond family and stayed anchored in the southwest town of La Rochelle. After putting the company up for sale in 2021, owners Jean-Luc and Charles Raymond canceled the deal this past May, holding on to the company and installing Laurent Desmoulins as directing manager. Both Desmoulins and Charles Raymond will be on-hand at this year’s CineEurope, accompanying the wider ICE Theaters team to showing force on the convention floor.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The trio behind Mediawan, the French company which recently acquired a majority stake in Brad Pitt’s Plan B, have made an offer to buy CGR Cinema, France’s second biggest multiplex chain, Variety has confirmed. The bid has been made by Pierre-Antoine Capton and French telecom tycoon Xavier Niel, the co-founders of Mediawan. Capton and Niel are being backed by a consortium which includes Matthieu Pigasse, a big-time financier who is the third co-founder of Mediawan, among others. The offer values CGR Cinemas below €500 million ($300 million), according to a source closed to discussions. The British fund Aermont Capital has also made an offer, according to the French news site “L’informé.”

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentSlowing emerging from a two-year pandemic, France’s second biggest multiplex chain behind Pathé, CGR Cinemas, has been put on the market by its owners, Luc Raymond and Charles Raymond, Variety has confirmed.The family-owned business has an estimated value of about $1.1 billion, according to Jocelyn Bouyssy, CGR’s long-time managing director who has been tapped to find a buyer for the group.Founded in 1966 in the Southwestern town of La Rochelle, CGR Cinemas now boasts 74 venues, over 700 screens and more than 2,000 staffers on the payroll. The company began diversifying in recent years by investing in the French distribution company Apollo Films, as well as in hotels and restaurants.