Business news from Ukraine

PJSC Multiplex-Holding, developing the Multiplex cinema chain in Ukraine, is holding negotiations with managers of Kyiv’s TsUM shopping center, seeking to open a cinema in the new premium format in it.
“We are at the final stage of negotiations. It remains to agree on some details… In the next few weeks we will sign it [the lease agreement],” Commercial Director of Multiplex Holding Vitaliy Pysarenko told Interfax-Ukraine, confirming the company’s intentions.
According to him, after signing the contract, it will take up to six months to open the cinema.
“This will be a format that corresponds to the audience of the department store itself — premium. I think it will be very popular in the center of Kyiv,” Pysarenko said.
He added that the nearest cinema to the TsUM (the Oscar cinema network) operates in the Gulliver shopping center, but Multiplex intends to offer a unique format. Pysarenko did not provide more details, but added that in connection with the change of management at TsUM, the cinema operator “has high expectations regarding the new team.”
In general, according to him, by the end of 2019, Multiplex plans to open about 40 more cinema halls (about five facilities).
“We have big plans for the next year. What I can say specifically – we will open [cinema halls] in the Spartak shopping mall (Lviv), as well as at the end of the (current) year in the Gagarin Plaza shopping mall in Odesa, which will be our first cinema in this city,” Pysarenko said.