CINEMA operator Eng Wah Organisation is selling its cinema-related properties for $99.5 million to the founding Goh family - whose history of showing movies here dates back to the 1940s.

The sale is part of a $675 million deal that would radically transform mainboard-listed Eng Wah from a cinema company into a pharmaceuticals player.

This is being done by a reverse takeover of Eng Wah by Japanese biotech firm Transcutaneous Technologies inked in May last year - and part of that deal requires the sale of the cinema assets.

On Monday, Eng Wah said it was selling Empress Theatre, Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre, Jubilee Entertainment Complex and the 16th floor at Orchard Towers for $99.5 million.

The buyer is a company owned by Eng Wah founder Goh Eng Wah and his daughter, Eng Wah's managing director Goh Min Yen.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.