Hoyts is planning to develop cinema venues with fully digital 3D screens, auditorium seating, and gourmet food and beverage facilities.

The first project, for which Hoyts is joining with Tainui, is due to open at Te Rapa in Hamilton in 2011.

Hoyts said the Te Rapa complex would boast the first purpose-built, fully digitalised movie venue in this country, with more than 1300 seats, six digital movie screens, a food emporium, bar, and an auditorium for large screen shows, conferences, private functions and sports entertainment.

Hoyts Corporation Holdings (NZ) has received a green light from New Zealand's competition watchdog to buy Berkeley cinemas in Auckland.

The Commerce Commission has cleared Hoyts to acquire the Berkeley film exhibition business from Everard Entertainment.

Hoyts operates seven cinema complexes in New Zealand, of which two – one at Wairau Park and the other at Sylvia Park – are in Auckland.

Berkeley operates four cinema complexes in greater Auckland, one each at Mission Bay, Botany Downs, Takapuna and Whangaparaoa.

Australia’s Hoyts Corporation is beefing up its New Zealand cinema business with the purchase of Barrie Everard’s Berkeley Cinema Group.

The Auckland-based company is the fourth largest cinema circuit in this country and the second largest in Auckland, with 21 screens in four complexes at Botany Downs, Mission Bay, Takapuna and Hibiscus Coast.

The third-largest is the US-owned Reading, which has large complexes in Wellington and Christchurch and seven other locations. It was previously a co-owner with Mr Everard of Botany Downs.

The private equity owner of the Hoyts cinema chain, one of the smaller exhibitors in New Zealand, is said to be planning a share float later in the year.

Pacific Equity Partners has also been reported to be considering a public share sale of its book retailing interests, Red Group Retail, which owns the Whitcoulls and Borders stores in New Zealand.

Australian news reports say PEP has invited several investments banks, including UBS, Macquarie and Goldman Sachs JBWere, to provide an initial market valuation of the business.

Former Fairfax boss David Kirk has swapped newspapers for movies, with his appointment as chairman of the Hoyts theatre group.

The appointment was revealed today by Hoyts director David Grayce and takes effect immediately.

Hoyts own and operates 45 cinemas with over 400 screens and more than 75,000 seats in Australasia, with eight cinema complexes in New Zealand.