With 85 screen additions in a single financial year, Inox claims this to be an industry record; taking the overall total to 574 screens
Multiplex chain operator Inox Leisure reported revenue growth of 48 percent year-on-year to Rs 478.8 crore in Q4FY19, led by healthy growth across all business segments.
According to a Yes Securities report, Inox's growth is on the back of strong content-driven footfall, highest-ever occupancy, increased conversion rate for its F&B business and a continued streak of strong revenue growth in advertising.
Strong content attracted audiences to the theatres, enabling 43 percent YoY growth in footfall, to 1.8 crore patrons and highest historic occupancy of 31 percent in Q4.
Net Box Office Collection (NBOC) revenue grew 50 percent YoY to Rs 280 crore. The growth was largely driven by strong collection from movies such as URI, Gully Boy, Simmba, Total Dhamaal and Kesari.
In the fourth quarter of FY19, the top five movies contributed 48 percent to the total gross box office collection (GBOC) as compared to 53 percent in Q4 FY18. Content mix in FY19 was 67-69 percent Hindi, 13-15 percent English and rest was regional language.
The movie pipeline for the next fiscal looks robust, with strong start from Avengers Endgame crossing Rs 300-crore revenue mark.
Talking to Moneycontrol, Alok Tandon, chief executive officer, Inox Leisure, said, “There is an all new content-driven ecosystem which is coming up. Besides a new genre of content, there is also a new class of performers and directors, adding significantly to the ecosystem and catering to the needs of new-age cinema lovers. We have big releases in the form of Bharat, Mental Hai Kya, Brahmastra coming up in the Hindi category, to name a few.”
With 85 screen additions in a single financial year, Inox claims this to be an industry record; taking the overall total to 574 screens.
Tandon said this equates to about one screen every four days. For the fourth quarter, he said, "We have added 28 screens with properties being launched in Jaipur, Jamnagar, Chennai and two in Bhubaneshwar. We added four new INSIGNIA screens at our existing properties in Mumbai.”
His outlook for FY20 is to add another 80 screens. “We have already added nine screens in two properties, taking our tally to 141 multiplexes and 583 screens in 67 cities. We have more than 850 screens lined up, for which we already have signed the documents,” he added.
The company has 8-9 percent premium category screens, including MX4D, Insignia & Onyx Diner, and will maintain the same composition of 10:90 premium: non premium category in FY20.
Tandon also talked about other growth segments like F&B and advertising.
“Along with revenue growth of 48 percent in Q4FY19, our EBITDA grew by 122 percent from Rs 44 crore in Q4FY18 to Rs 97 crore in Q4FY19, and our profits have risen by 992 percent to Rs 44 crore on a YoY basis. Our spends per head grew 9 percent in the same period to Rs 73 which indicates a growth liking for our F&B (food and beverage) offerings.”
He also claimed that the company had the best-ever quarterly advertising revenue at Rs 43 crore, having achieved growth of 29 percent over Q4FY18.
For Inox, this was the eighth consecutive quarter where its advertising revenues grew, said Tandon. “Our occupancy has grown as well from 26 percent to 28 percent, which is also a very healthy sign,” he added.
PVR, another player in the exhibition space, reported its fourth quarter results last week and posted healthy growth during the said period.
For PVR too, growth came on the back of strong box office performance. Other factors included reduction in goods and services tax (GST) (for tickets priced below Rs 100 from 18 percent to 12 percent) and acquisition of SPI Cinemas, India’s leading cinema exhibitor to strengthen its presence.
Ajay Bijli, chairman and managing director, PVR Ltd, after announcing the results, had said PVR has crossed the landmark of 750 screens and served almost 100 million patrons, a feat which places the company among top 10 cinema chains globally in terms of admits.
