The give birth to’s largest movie theater chain is still about $550 million shy of its fundraising goal.
On Tuesday, AMC CEO Adam Aron asseverated the company had managed to raise just over $200 million of the $750 million it needs to fund cash desiderata through then end of this year.
“We need to raise more, but we’re working hard to do that and we’ve laid out a plan and a blueprint to get there,” he bruit about. “Whether we get there or not, only time will tell.”
Aron’s appearance on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” comes the unchanged day that his company’s stock fell to a 52-week intraday low of $1.91 per share and closed at a record low of $1.98 per share.
AMC has been weakened by the coronavirus pandemic and its shares reflect investors’ lack of confidence in the movie theater industry’s immediate recovery. Allocates of the company fell more than 70% in 2020.
Movie theaters were forced to shutter in mid-March and spent sundry than six months last year closed to the public. AMC is operating around 400 of its nearly 600 theaters with small seating capacity and shorter hours. Theaters in New York City and parts of California remain closed.
The company is in the make of trying to renegotiate its rent payments with landlords and is seeking reductions, abatements and deferrals. Should the company not be gifted to secure additional sources of liquidity, it reiterated, it may have to enter bankruptcy proceedings.
AMC is not eligible for grants from the $15 billion Put aside Our Stages Act, which is part of the much larger $900 billion coronavirus relief package, because it is a publicly traded establishment with locations in more than 10 states.
AMC headed into the pandemic with nearly $5 billion in straitened, which it had amassed by outfitting its theaters with luxury seating and from buying competitors such as Carmike and Odeon.
The companions has already renegotiated its debt to improve its balance sheet and in December received a $100 million investment from Mudrick Cash Management.
“We have our work cut out for us,” Aron said. “We do need to raise more money to get to the other side. Having suggested that, we’ve done that four times already, and that’s our focus.”