Multiplex operator PVR Inox has announced that it will close around 50 loss-making cinema screens in the next 6 months.
PVR Inox said in a statement, “The company plans to close around 50 cinema screens in the next 6 months. These properties are loss-making, or are placed in malls that will not see any revival towards the end of their life cycle.” ended with the expectation of The company has taken accelerated depreciation charge in its books and written off the WDV of the assets.”
PVR Inox Limited (earlier known as PVR Limited) on Monday reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 333.99 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2023.
PVR Inox said in a regulatory filing that the company had reported a net loss of Rs 105.49 crore in the January-March period a year ago.
Its revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,143.17 crore during the quarter under review. It was Rs 536.17 crore in the year-ago period.
During the quarter ending March 2023, two leading cinema exhibitors PVR Ltd and INOX Leisure merged to form a new identity PVR Inox Ltd.
The merger was effective from February 6, 2023, hence the results are not comparable, it said.
“The Q4 FY’23 results for the company are reported based on the merger of PVR and INOX and are not comparable with the Q4 FY’22 reported results. Similarly, the FY’23 full year results for PVR and 4 The quarterly numbers for PVR and Inox combined do not make them comparable with the reported results for FY22,” it said.
The total expenses of PVR Inox in Q4/FY23 were Rs 1,364.11 crore. Its total income in the March quarter stood at Rs 1,164.92 crore.
Sharing the highlights of the quarter, the company in its earnings statement said that its theatrical admissions (the total number of people who visited cinema halls) during the quarter stood at 30.5 million.
The average ticket price in the March quarter was Rs 239 and the average F&B spend per patron was Rs 119. It added 79 screens across 13 properties during the quarter.
For the financial year ending March 2023, PVR Inox’s net loss stood at Rs 336.40 crore. Its consolidated revenue from operations in FY23 was Rs 3,750.65 crore.
“During FY’23, our company has witnessed a strong recovery despite low performance and volatility of Hindi films and significantly fewer releases from Hollywood in the previous year,” it said.
Commenting on the results, Ajay Bijli, Managing Director, PVR Inox, said: “The past year has been the first full year of uninterrupted operations for the exhibition industry. The box office quarter on quarter was quite volatile.”
We believe that the 2 major factors affecting the industry in FY23 – poor performance of Hindi films and lesser number of Hollywood releases, both will reduce in FY24.”
In FY23, PVR and INOX launched 168 new screens across 30 theatres.
“… We have plans to open 150-175 more screens in FY24. Most of these screens are in various stages of fit-out. The company as a strategy has earmarked all of the new sites for fitout for the next calendar year. The upcoming Handover has also been rescheduled. Year till there is a strong recovery at the box office.”
PVR INOX was operating 361 cinemas with 1,689 screens across 115 cities by the end of FY23 in India and Sri Lanka.
Regarding the outlook, PVR Inox said: “Looking forward to FY24, we are optimistic about the strong content lineup across languages.”
Shares of PVR Inox Ltd on Monday closed at Rs 1,464.45 on the BSE, up 1.19 per cent from its previous close.
,With inputs from PTI,
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