Ward Anderson given go-ahead for €80m takeover of cinema chain

COMPETITION watchdogs have given the go-ahead to the Ward Anderson group’s €80 million takeover of a chain of 11 cinemas in Britain.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) decision leaves the group, which owns the Savoy cinema in Dublin and the Capitol Cineplex in Cork, free to acquire the cinemas from their current owners, venture capital firm Terra Firma Investments.

Terra Firma, which took over the giant UCI and Odeon chains last year in combined deals worth €850m, was forced to sell 11 of the groups’ cinemas in return for clearance for the transactions.