Indian digital cinema distribution network and in-cinema advertising platform, UFO Moviez (UFO) reported a 9.5 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y) growth in advertising revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2016 (Q1-17, current quarter). The company reported advertising revenue of Rs 39.7 crore in Q1-17 as compared to Rs 36.4 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year (Q1-16). Average advertisement minutes sold per show per screen increased to 3.97 (Q1-16 – 3.81) minutes during Q1-17.
Theatrical and In-Cinema advertisement (consolidated excluding new businesses) revenues grew by 3.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 133.2 crore (Q1-16 – Rs 129 crore). Consolidated revenues improved by 3.1 per cent y-o-y in Q1-17 to Rs 134.6 crore (Q1-16 – Rs 130.6 crore).
Let us look at the other numbers reported by UFO Moviez
Total Expense in Q1-17 increased 9.1 per cent y-o-y to Rs 98.2 crore from Rs 90.0 crore in Q1-16. Ad revenue share (expense) in Q1-17 increased 5.4 per cent y-o-y to Rs 12.08 crore from Rs 11.47 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Visual Print sharing expense in Q1-17 increased 19.8 per cent y-o-y to Rs 19.44 crore from Rs 16.23 crore in Q1-16.
The company’s expense towards purchase of digital cinema equipment and lamps in the current quarter declined 13.7 per cent y-o-y to Rs 13.77 crore as compared to Rs 15.96 crore in Q1-16.
EBIDTA in the current quarter declined 10.3 per cent y-o-y to Rs 36.4 crore from Rs 40.6 crore in Q1-16. Profit after tax (PAT) in Q1-17 declined 30.1 per cent y-o-y to Rs 9 crore from Rs 12.8 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter. PAT, profit from associates and minority interest in Q1-17 declined 25.9 per cent y-o-y to Rs 9.8 crore from Rs 13.3 crore in Q1-16.
Company speak
“In the first quarter of fiscal 2017, UFO’s consolidated revenues stood at Rs 1,346 million. Advertisement revenues grew by 9.5 per cent over the higher base of last year, and our annual guidance of 30 per cent growth remains unchanged,” said UFO Moviez, joint managing director, Kapil Agarwal. “Profitability was negatively impacted due to planned losses in Caravan Talkies. Efforts to improve Caravan revenues have further intensified, which we believe should lead to cash breakeven in H2FY17.”
“We continue to make progress towards achieving our strategic objectives,” said UFO Movies, founder and managing director, Sanjay Gaikwad. “Our hyperlocal advertising initiative – UFO Framez has been well received by direct sales associates and advertisers and has started yielding results. To sustain the current direction, we continue to appoint dynamic and self-motivated direct sales associates across our advertisement network. Recently, we also announced the merger between UFO and its wholly owned subsidiaries, which on completion would result in significant synergies, cost saving and operating efficiencies.”
Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.