Cinemex

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Cinemex is a cineplex company based in Mexico that has built a nationally branded cineplex chain.

Cinemex started with a college business plan. Adolfo Fastlicht, Miguel Angel Dávila Guzmán and Matthew Heyman speculated that Mexico was ready for world-class movie theaters. When the regulations were lifted with the new Cinematography Law passed in Mexico in 1992, Adolfo Fastlicht and Miguel Angel Dávila decided that Mexico City offered an attractive market for a high-end chain of theaters.

In 1994, they secured $21.5m in equity financing from JPMorgan Partners and a partnership of the Bluhm family of Chicago, CMex Investors. The deal is generally acknowledged to be the largest venture capital start-up in Mexican history.

Since then, Cinemex has opened 48 cineplexes in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Toluca, Cuernavaca and Puebla. Around 2005 they also expanded internationally to Guatemala City.

[edit] History

Cinemex's first theater was Cinemex Altavista opened in August 2nd., 1995 and was soon followed by Cinemex Santa Fe, regarded as the company's flagship, on October and Cinemex Manacar on January, 1996. That same year saw the opening of Cinemex Los Reyes and Cinemex Loreto.

In June of 2002 Onex Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management acquired Cinemex for $300m and two years later sold it to The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Spectrum, investment funds corporations, each having a seat in Cinemex's board.