Cinema operator Cineworld Group Plc's lacklustre performance in Britain and Ireland and an unchanged outlook for 2018 overshadowed an increase in revenue so far this year, sending its shares down more than 6% on Thursday.

Cineworld, which is gearing for big-ticket releases such as "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" and "Aquaman" this year, said it would deliver a performance in line with its current expectations for the year.

The company's revenue this year through Nov 11 rose 11.6%, boosted by the success of action movies "Black Panther" and "Avengers: Infinity War" and said that the European markets saw an uplift in the second half of the year, driven by movies including "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again", "Incredibles 2" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the UK.

Revenue in the UK and Ireland rose just 2.1% in the period, compared with a 5.9% jump this time last year.

The London-listed company said its expected plans for U.S. cinema chain Regal, which it bought for $3.6 billion earlier this year, were progressing well and that it was continuing to review further opportunities for integration benefits.

"For this year, these factors (strong U.S. and Regal) outweigh the impact of the UK and mainland Europe trading slightly behind as well as a rising cost of debt," Peel Hunt analysts said and held their forecasts.

Shares of the Chiswick, London-based company were down 4% at 285 pence by 0851 GMT after touching a low of 276.8 pence earlier and were the third-biggest losers on the FTSE Midcap Index. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie