Kinowelt co-founders brothers Rainer and Michael Koelmel have stepped down from the company as an investor group led by Kinowelt executives Marcus Schoefer and Jerry Payne moved to take over the company's core businesses of theatrical distribution, home entertainment and license dealing in a management buy out.

Schoefer and Payne are to launch a new independent company from the beginning of August under the name of Neue Kinowelt Medien GmbH.

An official communique stated that subsidiaries or holdings not belonging to Kinowelt's core business - such as MCP Sound Media or the Swiss distribution outfit Rialto Film - had already been sold off by the insolvency administrator Wolfgang Ott, while other holdings would be put up for sale or go into liquidation.

Ott indicated that he expects Kinowelt Medien and Kinowelt Lizenzverwertungs GmbH to go into liquidation after the closing of the deal with NKM.