BENGALURU: Indian digital cinema distribution network and in-cinema advertising platform, UFO Moviez Limited (UFO) reported a 12.78 per cent growth in consolidated revenue to Rs 479.34 crore for the year ended 31 March, 2015 (FY-2015), as compared to the Rs 425.03 crore in the previous year, by increase in advertising clients and higher Virtual Print Fees (VPF) revenues. The company reported 20.75 higher operating profit or EBIDTA, for FY-2015 at Rs 160.83 crore (33.55 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 133.12 crore (31.34 per cent margin) in the previous fiscal.
Note: 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10 million = 1 crore.
The company’s PAT in FY-2015 increased 2.42 per cent to Rs 48.81 crore (10.18 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 47.66 crore (11.21 per cent margin in the previous year). The company says that the increase in PAT has come about despite a FY-2014 tax expense having a deferred tax credit of Rs 10.946 crore, which is Rs 4.98 crore higher than FY-2015 deferred tax credit of Rs 5.966 crore.
Further, despite lower expense towards purchase of digital cinema equipment and lamps, higher expenses towards advertisement revenue share, VPF share and depreciation eroded the profits of the company in FY-2015.
UFO joint managing director Kapil Agarwal said, “Both Advertising and VPF delivered healthy growth during the fiscal. This can be attributed to improved utilisation of advertisement inventory coupled with higher number of movie releases. Our focus on delivering uninterrupted service on our technology platform to distributors and advertisers, with whom we have healthy relationship, has helped us maintain market leadership. We will continue to leverage our existing platform to drive growth. Overall, we will continue to strive to deliver strong operating performance in the Fiscal Year 2015-16.”
Let us look at the other expense reported by the company:
Total Expenses in FY-2015 at Rs 395.45 crore (83.11 per cent of TIO) was 10.66 per cent more than the Rs 357.35 crore (84.24 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014. The company’s expense towards purchase of digital cinema equipment and lamps in the current year dropped 16.46 per cent to Rs 40.59 crore (8.53 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 48.59 crore (11.45 per cent of TIO) in the previous fiscal.
The company paid a 27.23 higher amount towards advertisement revenue share in FY-2015 at Rs 39.39 crore (8.28 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 30.96 crore (7.3 per cent of TIO) in FY-2014.
Further, the company paid 22.91 per cent more towards VPF share at Rs 63.31 crore (13.31 per cent of TIO) in FY-2015 as compared to the Rs 51.51 crore (12.14 per cent of TIO) in the previous year.
The company reported higher depreciation in FY-2015 at Rs 79.64 crore (16.17 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 65.52 crore (15.45 per cent of TIO) in Fy-2014.
Advertisement and VPF revenues playout during the year
UFO says that its in-cinema advertising platform comprised 3,784 screens with an average weekly seating capacity of approximately 5.2 crore as on 31 March, 2015, which engaged with about 1724 advertisers during the year and delivered advertisements across 1,951 locations. Its annual advertisement revenue per screen (average) stood at Rs 316,346 in FY-2015 compared to Rs 299,711 in FY-2014. The number of minutes sold per show per advertisement screen (average) stood at 3.36 in the current year compared to 3.25 in FY-2014, while the number of in-cinema advertising clients increased to 1724 in FY-2015 from 1056 in FY-2014.
The company says that its digital cinema network in India comprised 5,032 screens with a seating capacity of approximately 22.2 lakh per show as on 31 March, 2015. (Note: Nepal forms a part of the Indian Film Territory, hence the number of digital screens includes Nepal screens). The company delivered approximately 1636 movies for 1830 distributors across 1,970 locations during the year.
In India, annual gross VPF revenue / screen (average) on E-Cinema stood at Rs 259,171 in FY-2015 as compared to Rs 251,308 in FY-2014, while annual gross VPF revenue / screen (average) on D-Cinema stood at Rs 586,961 in FY-2015 as compared to the Rs 603,304 in FY-2014.
Internationally, annual gross VPF revenue / Screen (average) on D-Cinema stood at Rs 750,764 in FY-2015 compared to Rs 812,102 in FY-2014.
UFO managing director Sanjay Gaikwad said, “We are pleased to announce a healthy operating and financial performance during the fiscal year 2014-15. The growth prospects for UFO remain robust. We believe that there is a lot of headroom for growth in advertisement revenue, given that the number of minutes sold per show per screen on our network is significantly lower than multiplex chains. We expect this to improve gradually as advertiser engagements further deepen and as we attract new advertisers. We will continue to leverage our current base by also focusing on our synergetic business initiative Caravan Talkies – cinema on wheels, to drive incremental revenues. Our technology platform, differentiated service offering, clear strategic focus and experienced execution and management teams, give us a firm foundation to capture growth in the years to come.”
