Two days ahead of the publication of its half-yearly figures, debt-ridden German media group Kinowelt Medien joined the ranks of the so-called "penny stocks" as trading on Wednesday sent the share price down by some 17% to a new all-time low of Euro 0.90.

The latest slump in the share price came after the German online news service Netzzeitung alleged that Kinowelt was on the verge of bankruptcy because a Euro 60m credit might not now be forthcoming from a consortium of banks led by BHF Bank.

In the past weeks, the beleaguered concern has been negotiating with the banks for a restructuring of its debt which would lead to a conversion of its short-term liabilities into long-term ones. According to the company's first quarter report, Kinowelt had long-term liabilities of Euro 253.5m and short-term ones of Euro 238.2m.

A Kinowelt spokesman stated that the long anticipated "restructuring concept" will be presented in the coming days while the Financial Times Deutschland spoke of "within the coming six working days" which would mean by the middle of next week.