13th Aug 2015 11:24
LONDON (Alliance News) - Cineworld Group PLC Thursday reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year, boosted by sales of tickets for a number of new films including 'Fifty Shades of Grey', which broke box office records, and said it is "marginally ahead" of its plans for the full year as a whole.
The cinema operator reported a a huge boost in pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended July 2 to GBP46.8 million from GBP13.9 million in the same period the year before, as its revenue grew to GBP329.1 million from GBP268.6 million.
Cineworld said that it saw a "satisfactory" increase in admissions, box office revenue and retail sales, which achieved growth of 5.4%, 10.9% and 12.9%, respectively, while the average ticket price also increased by 5.2%, and spend per person rose 7.1%. Other revenue grew 10.4%.
The most successful titles released were 'Fifty Shades of Grey', 'Fast and Furious 7', and 'Jurassic World', all of which broke box office records. 'Avengers: The Age of Ultron' was also a big success, the company said.
Cineworld added that the film release programme for the second half of the year is "encouraging", saying that family titles such as 'Minions' and 'Jurassic World' have continued their strong performance into July, while the new Disney title 'Inside Out' has also proved popular. Trading during the first half of the third quarter has outperformed the prior year comparative, Cineworld said.
Notable releases in the second half also include 'Star Wars: Episode VII', 'Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2' and the next Bond film 'Spectre', it added.
"Overall, with the anticipated strength of the film line up in the second half, coupled with our solid first half performance, we are marginally ahead of our plans for the year as a whole," Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger said in a statement.
Cineworld will pay an interim dividend of 5.0 pence, a 31.6% increase on the 3.8p it paid the year before.
As part of its expansion plans, Cineworld opened three new Cineworld cinemas and one Picturehouse in the UK during the period, and plans to open a further six cinemas in the second half. It has 18 further development sites in the UK contractually scheduled to open in the next three years, 11 of which will be opened in 2016.
It also opened a new cinema in Romania during the period, and since the end of the first half opened two new cinemas in Poland, one in Romania and one in Israel. Throughout the remainder of the year it is currently contracted to open a further four cinemas in the Central & Eastern Europe and Israel region, and has 33 development sites scheduled to open in the next three years, seven of which will be opened in 2016.
Analysts were positive of Cineworld's update, with Numis, Investec and N+1 Singer agreeing that it posted a strong set of results. Numis upped its pretax profit forecast for the full year to GBP91.4 million from GBP90.0 million, above the GBP90.7 million consensus estimate.
Shares in Cineworld were trading up 3.7% at 569.00 pence midday Thursday.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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