Grupo GMR, owner of Spain's Cinebox exhibitionchain, has unveiled plans to construct 14 new complexes in cities across thecountry over the next three years.

Under the brand Lux Cinemas, the new theatres will offer screening roomscatering to uses beyond feature films, including business meetings andpresentations, and specialized film and video screenings.

The plans,which foresee an investment of more than $33.8m (Euros 26.8m), encompass 160new screens and more than 33,000 seats in 14 new complexes. Cinebox had 34 multiplexesand 349 screens at the end of 2005.

The announcement comes afterseveral years of other well-known chains selling off shares or abandoning theSpanish market.

The most active buyer hasbeen UK private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners,which bought out three chains in Spain since 2004: local player Cinesa,AMC's multiplexes in Spain and Portugal and Warner's and Lusomundo'sshares of the Spanish-Portuguese Warner Lusomundo Sogecable chain. Last year, Mercapitaltook a majority stake in Grupo Abaco,which had two years earlier swallowed up SterCinema's theatres in Spain.