Chief Cineworld shareholder sells 8% stake for 116 mln pounds

March 9 (Reuters) - Cineworld said on Monday its biggest shareholder Global City Theatres B.V. had agreed to sell around 7.9% of the British cinema operator for about 116 million pounds ($152.61 million) to buyers including Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.

An affiliate of GIC had bought 62 million of the 108 million shares sold in the deal, representing around 4.5% of Cineworld's share capital, the company said.

"As part of a refinancing of GCT's financial arrangements, the aggregate proceeds of the share sale will be used to restructure the margin loan facility provided to GCT by Barclays Bank PLC and HSBC Bank PLC into a new secured corporate loan facility," the company said. ($1 = 0.7601 pounds) (Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham)