Green eyes up CSA and Pearl & Dean as part of UCI deal

LONDON - Former Carlton Communications chairman Michael Green is to bid for the Carlton Screen Advertising and Pearl & Dean cinema advertising businesses as part of his proposed deal for the UCI Cinema chain.

Green is understood to have approached financier Guy Hands about a joint bid for the 330-screen UCI business.

According to reports, Green will try to buy Carlton Screen Advertising, the cinema advertising arm of ITV, and merge it with SMG's screen advertising division, Pearl & Dean. The merger would create a monoply business with Green controlling all cinema advertising in the UK.

News of Green's bid for CSA comes as ITV moves to sell off its non-core assets, including post-production firm The Moving Picture Company.

The bid for UCI is expected to reach about £400m and industry sources have suggested that Green is trying to persuade Hands of the benefits of a joint bid.

ITV's chief executive Charles Allen has confirmed that he wants to divest "non-core" divisions of the business, such as Carlton Screen Advertising. SMG is also believed to be willing to sell Pearl & Dean if the price is right. The merger of the two cinema firms would probably be referred to the Office of Fair Trading.

The move comes as Tim Schoonmaker, the former head of Emap's radio division, resurfaced as the new chief executive of Odeon Cinemas last week.

Schoonmaker was chief executive of Emap Performance, which houses Kiss FM and Magic, and chairman of Emap Advertising. The New Yorker recently resigned from the company after more than 20 years.

At the time, no reason was given for his decision to leave although it was widely speculated that he might have fallen out with chief executive Tom Maloney about ambitions to bid for the radio assets of SMG. It was understood that Maloney was unwilling to fund the deal.

Odeon has 604 screens at 96 sites across the country.

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