Recovery was slow, and the companys already high debt made a reset impossible.

The restructuring will shore up its balance sheet and provide significant additional liquidity.

Specifically, it will erase $4.53 billion of debt.

Cineworld bankruptcy

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Its not clear who will ultimately spin up the company.

Do you think that it is morally right for that to happen, and the shareholders get nothing?

Why dont you split that with the shareholders?

WGA West building in Hollywood

An attorney for the debtors objected the word moral as irrelevant.

Hes a lay person, the judge said, What he means is fair and equitable.

The attorney said the payment would drive direct value to the estate as it movies into its next phase.

Okay, but Can you get your heads together and get the shareholders something, some scraps?

The attorney said that cash would never have gone to shareholders in any case.

The exchange did prompt an explainer by Judge Isgur about who recoups in a bankruptcy.

Shareholders are always last after secured and unsecured lenders and creditors.

Shareholders take the first risk of failure of a business.

In this case, there is theres just not enough there to pay everyone.

Its not that I dont care [about shareholders].

Its not that I dont stay up at night worrying about them.

I want shareholders to hear that directly from me, the judge said.

This is not an attempt the steal the business form shareholders.

The business was stolen by a disease, a virus, that spread around the world.

The Greidingers were Cineworlds biggest shareholders.