Arts Alliance has sold City Screen Group, which trades as Picturehouse Cinemas, to Cineworld Group plc, for £47.3 million in cash. Arts Alliance has been the majority shareholder of Picturehouse since 2002.

Thomas Høegh, founder of Arts Alliance and a director of Picturehouse, commented: “Over the last ten years, Lyn Goleby and her team have been at the forefront of developing a customer-centric, quality cinema experience, and successfully brought the unique Picturehouse proposition to an ever-increasing number of passionate audiences. In Cineworld, Arts Alliance could not have found a better partner for Picturehouse to scale the circuit to many more.”

Picturehouse is the U.K.’s leading art-house cinema operator. It was the first major cinema group in the U.K. to convert 100% of its screens to digital projection. The group also provides programming and ticketing solutions to over 50 independent cinemas throughout the U.K. and Norway, and operates a standalone distribution company, Picturehouse Entertainment. The company reports that revenues and earnings increased more than four-fold between 2002 and 2011.

Arts Alliance continues to own majority interests in Arts Alliance Media, Europe's largest digital-cinema integration company, and Met Film, a fast-growing film school and award-winning feature film production and post-production company. Arts Alliance Media continues to provide digital in-cinema solutions, services and support to Cineworld and to Picturehouse cinemas.