07/06/2006

From September 2006, Europlex Cinémas, the largest film distribution company in French-speaking Switzerland, will be part of the Pathé Suisse, the sister company of EuroPalaces, which operates in France, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland under the names of Pathé and Gaumont.

Europlex, owned by the financial group Sörös, signed a purchase agreement with Pathé last month for its network of theatres, which includes Les Galeries du cinéma (8 screens) and le Flon (7 screens) in Lausanne, as well as the Rialto Cornavin (7 screens) and les Rex (3 screens) in Geneva. Excluded from the agreement were four theatres (8 screens); these are now looking for buyers.

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In becoming the largest distribution outfit in Switzerland, Pathé now holds a monopoly in Geneva, where the 13-screen Pathé Balexert multiplex already draws more than half of the city’s audiences. The group will also be the leading distributor in Lausanne, where the Europlex cinemas will continue to trade under their own name. Pathé is already active in German-speaking Switzerland, in Dietlikon (10 screens), and will open screens in Basel this autumn.

(Translated from French)