ENTERTAINMENT : Drabinsky Likely in Bidding for Cineplex

More than four months after a nasty row with his largest shareholder, Cineplex Odeon Chairman Garth H. Drabinsky was expected Thursday to submit a bid--along with perhaps a half-dozen competing offers--to buy the movie theater company that he helped found 10 years ago.

Sources said Thursday was the deadline set by a special committee of Cineplex directors, but the results of the auction may not be determined for several weeks. The committee won’t reconvene until next week in Toronto to begin comparing the bids, sources indicated.

The identities of the bidders were not disclosed, but in addition to Drabinsky, an offer for the Canadian theaters is widely anticipated from Astral Bellevue Pathe Inc., a Montreal film and pay-television company.

The Cineplex committee is willing to entertain bids for either the Canadian theaters or the U.S. theaters, or the company as a whole, said two sources close to the auctioning process. In a last-minute flurry, some parties appear to be still refining their bids, and two sources said it was likely that offers would continue to trickle in over the weekend.

Cineplex, the second-largest movie theater chain in North America, was placed on the auction block last spring after Drabinsky failed in his attempt to seize control by buying a block of stock from the Charles R. Bronfman family. The maneuver enraged MCA Inc., the giant entertainment company that owns 49% of Cineplex, and ultimately Canadian regulators agreed that Drabinsky could not complete the deal without making the same offer ($14.76 in U.S. currency or $17.50 a share Canadian at the time) to all shareholders.

Possible Candidates

In the wake of that ruling, Drabinsky’s group of financial backers disbanded, and the Bronfmans and MCA banded together to put the company up for sale.

In the past week, speculation has mounted that MCA might be willing to retain its 49% stake if a strong partner steps forward from the entertainment industry. Possible candidates might include other movie theater companies such as cash-rich General Cinema Corp. or National Amusements Inc., both headquartered in the Boston area, or the Los Angeles-based Davis Cos., led by former 20th Century Fox Film Corp. owner Marvin Davis, which sent representatives to Toronto last week to look over Cineplex data.

Jack Richer, the Cineplex director who is serving as the special committee’s spokesman, declined to comment other than to say: “The mandate of the committee is to sell the company. . . . The only way the committee can sell pieces is if it can culminate in the sale of the company.”

In composite trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, Cineplex shares closed at $12.75, up 12.5 cents.