ITV

Category: Production House

  • BSkyB acquires 70 per cent stake in Love Productions

    BSkyB acquires 70 per cent stake in Love Productions

    MUMBAI: Media baron Rupert Murdoch owned UK pay TV operator BSkyB has acquired a stake in one of UK’s leading production houses- Love Productions. The investment is a strategy to grow a broad, international content business spanning broadcasting, production and distribution. 

     

    Love Productions, launched in 2004 by Richard McKerrow and Anna Beattie has created shows such as Great British Bakeoff and Great British Sewing Bee as well as documentaries like Baby Borrowers, Famous Rich and Homeless, Benefits Street, Make Bradford British and My Last Summer. It has bases in London, Bristol, New York and Los Angeles.

     

    Under the new ownership of BSkyB, it will operate as a separate company while continuing its work of producing programs and formats. The owners will run the company along with the existing management team.

     

    BSkyB’s international distribution business, Sky Vision, will become Love Productions’ distribution partner, representing all new finished programmes and formats and leveraging its relationships with leading networks and producers across the world.   Meanwhile, existing agreements with broadcasters and distributors won’t be affected.

     

    Sky Vision deals extensively with independent producers, sourcing programming for distribution, largely from the UK and the US. It has development deals with a number of production companies including Ugly Brother Studios in the US and in the UK with back2back productions and Roughcut TV. The investment in Love Productions is part of this strategy to grow a broad, international content business.  

    Sky MD content Sophie Turner Laing said, “This is a significant step for our growing international content business. Love is one of the UK’s most innovative and creative independent producers with a track record of success across a range of genres, both in the UK and globally. Led by Richard and Anna, Love has a hugely talented team with exciting plans for the future. We are really looking forward to supporting them as they build on their relationships with different broadcasters throughout the industry and helping them to grow the business”.

     

    Love Productions joint chief creative officers Richard McKerrow and Anna Beattie said, “We are extremely excited by the prospect of a partnership with Sky. We feel it’s the perfect time to be working with a group who can help us realise our creative and commercial potential and fulfil all of our international ambitions for the Love brand. Love has always sought to be a pioneering company, launching new ideas and breaking new ground. Sky feels like a company of the future, full of dynamic and extremely creative leaders who will back our independent spirit and are keen to support all our future ambitions.”

  • Indus Media Entertainment to enter film and TV production in India

    Indus Media Entertainment to enter film and TV production in India

    MUMBAI: The film and television industry in the country is all set to get fresh infusion of funds from Singapore’s Indus Media and Entertainment (IME) in the form of a venture capital (VC) fund worth Rs 75 crore. IME is looking at raising capital to invest in Hollywood films, south Indian films and producing TV content, with Rs 300 crore as the target and 75 per cent (Rs 225 crore) of it being invested in Hollywood. “Hollywood has a more structured work environment. There is a completion bond as to when will the film be completed as well as the exact amount of expenditure. So it makes sense to enter Hollywood,” says IME co-founder Naveen Chathappuram. 

     

    IME founding director Devarajan Venkat is of the view that India cannot be ignored. “South Indian films, Tamil and Malayalam, are our first targets and eventually after we make some profit, we will explore the Telugu market as well. Initially we will work with small budgets before moving to larger projects,” he says. Venkat adds that unlike other film producers and private equity funds, IME is here to look at opportunities that make commercial sense rather than pick projects driven by creative compulsion.

     

    Soft commitments worth Rs 90 crore have already been obtained from investors based mainly in the Middle East. Venkat is aware that people are apprehensive of VC funds, especially because this is the first off shore fund in India. Investors are being promised returns of 18 to 20 per cent. 

     

    IME’s other focus is TV production on a global scale. “The American sitcom market is booming in India, especially amongst the teenage audience. We are looking at creating original concepts that could be adapted into every language,” adds Venkat. IME aims to be genre agnostic but it knows that drama, reality and sitcom are the types that work here informs Venkat. Again, the aim is not on creativity but on commercial viability, he further informs. His own experience of 20 years in finance with the Reliance Group and Balaji Telefilms will ensure that only financially viable projects would be undertaken.

     

    Shows that will be created will be in English but with Indian sensibilities and Indian actors. Venkat believes that just as Indians can connect with American shows with American sensibilities, shows with Indian sensibilities will be gobbled up across the world, especially by the non-resident Indians as well as by Indians themselves. One such show Brown Nation is already under production.

     

    “The objective is dual- to reach out to Indians across the world and also target the niche in India. We don’t want an India exclusive product,” he adds. The show costs are in the rage of approximately Rs 60 lakh per episode or USD 1 lakh. The fact that IME is a global fund will ensure that revenues come from across the globe as only Indian revenues may not be able to sustain the costs.

     

    The fund is expected to launch by September 2014 with nearly 20 investors from across the globe and fund deployment will begin by this year end. Venkat believes that TV is not a business where one could incur loss since IME is looking at creating shows and then selling them. But IME’s focus is higher on films because of the glamour factor.

     

    IME’s offices are currently located in Singapore, Chicago and Chennai with an extension being made to Mumbai shortly. The fund will be based out of Mauritius. On the board of directors are Venkat, Chathappuram, Charles Leslie, Ramu Veerappan, T Jeyananth and PAR Subramaniam.

     

    Projects currently being worked upon are Night of the Living Dead which will see actor R Madhavan enter Hollywood and a Malayali movie featuring Fahad Fazil.

     

    Other existing domestic VC funds are Third Eye Cinema Fund and soon to launch Bend It Media Fund.

  • Eros international to raise over $96 million from sales on NYSE

    Eros international to raise over $96 million from sales on NYSE

    NEW DELHI: Eros International, arguably the largest overseas distributor of Indian films, will raise more than $96 million from the sale of shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

     

    The company transferred its listing from London’s second tier Alternative Investment Market to the main board of the NYSE, recently, and the shares are a component of the Russell 3000 index.

     

    The share issue is characterised as a ‘follow-on equity offering,’ according to a report in ‘Variety’.

     

    The company, this week, announced that it would sell 6.675 million A ordinary shares, while existing shareholders would sell 325,000, for a minimum total of seven million shares. The company set the price at $14.5 per share earlier this week for a total offering of $101.5 million, and new capital for the company of $96.5.

     

    In the event that the issue is heavily subscribed, both Eros and the existing shareholders may sell a combined total of 1.05 million additional A ordinary shares.

     

    Shares fell from $14.9 to $14.12 on the pricing news on 10 July, the report said.

  • Eros International Announces Pricing of Follow-on Equity Offering

    Eros International Announces Pricing of Follow-on Equity Offering

    MUMBAI: Eros International, a leading global company in the Indian film entertainment industry, today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 7,000,000 A ordinary shares at a price of $14.50. The offering consists of 7,000,000 A ordinary shares offered by Eros and certain existing shareholders, which consists of 6,675,000 shares offered by Eros and 325,000 shares offered by the selling shareholders. Eros will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling shareholders. In addition, Eros and an existing shareholder have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,050,000 A ordinary shares in total, which will be equally split between Eros and the existing shareholder at the offering price less underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on 15 July 2014.

     

    BofA Merrill Lynch, Jefferies, Wells Fargo Securities and Macquarie Capital are acting as joint book running managers and EM Securities is acting as co-manager for the offering.

     

    Copies of the prospectus may be obtained from BofA Merrill Lynch, 222 Broadway, New York, NY 10038, Attn: Prospectus Department, or via email, at dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com and from Jefferies LLC, Attn: Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022, or via e-mail at Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com .

     

    A registration statement relating to the offering has been filed with, and has been declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

  • 20 years of Balaji Telefilms’ dominance

    20 years of Balaji Telefilms’ dominance

    MUMBAI: “My company works on two principles. One, nothing is bigger than the programme, not even the company. Two, if you believe in me and really want to share my goal and vision, please join me; else don’t show me your face. I have never told this to anybody before, but seriously, the company needs an attitude. No company which does not have an attitude can ever be successful,” are the words of the woman who turned the small screen into big!

     

    India’s largest fiction TV producer Balaji Telefilms which  redefined  Indian television and made Ekta Kapoor a household name can be credited for the satellite boom in the country as well. 

     

    Like many of her counterparts, she too started her career very young. From being just yesteryear’s superstar Jeetendra’s daughter, today Ekta Kapoor is the woman who rules the hearts and the minds of many. She started off at 17 and since then, has loved, eaten and slept only television. Always thinking about concepts, casting, styling, selecting technicians, shooting and scheduling, marketing and acquiring the new skills required to succeed.

     

    Set up in 1994, the powerhouse has completed 20 years of entertainment. It all started with a comedy show on Zee TV, ‘Hum Paanch’, in 1995 and today it has an array of shows to its name.

     

    Satellite television began in the early nineties with the launch of Zee TV, followed by Sony Entertainment Television later in the decade and finally Star Plus as the millenium ended. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to say her TV shows have played a pivotal role in each one of their successes at some time or the other. Even the latest major entrant Colors – from Viacom18 – is relying on her new show Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi to give it an injection of TRPs. One after the other, the production house has created blockbusters on the small screen. ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ and ‘Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki’ made everyone switch on to Star Plus every night from 10pm to 11 pm; people cried and laughed with the characters. So much so that the death of the character Mihir Virani on ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ lead to fan protest marches to bring back him back. The shows also garnered unheard of TRPs for eight long years.

      

    Then, came another slew of superhit drama series  like ‘Kabhi Souten Kabhie Saheli’ (Star Plus), ‘Kutumb’ (Sony), ‘Kuch Jhuki Palkein’ (Sony) and ‘Kohi Apna Sa’ (Zee), ‘Kahin To Hoga’ (Star Plus), ‘Kasautii Zindagi Kay’ (Star Plus), ‘Kkusum’ (Sony) which took the company miles ahead from its competitors.

     

    Some of the company’s on-going popular shows like ‘Jodha Akbar’ (Zee TV) ‘Bade Acche Lagte Hai’ (Sony), ‘Pavitra Rishta’ (Zee TV), ‘Ye Hain Mohobbatein’ (Star Plus), and ‘Kumkum Bhagya’ (Zee TV) hold strong in their time band.

     

    Balaji, which possesses 23 modern sets and 37 editing suites in India, also helped enhance the primetime slot on GECs.

     

    The company has produced more than 15,000 hours of television content since its inception, including content in Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and Malayalam.

     

    Filmy business

     

    If television dominance wasn’t enough, the company soon entered the Indian motion picture business in 2002.  

     

    Till 2009, the company through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Balaji Motion Pictures, had produced and/or acquired 12 films, including hits like Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Sarkar Raj.

     

    It set trends here as well when it co-produced and distributed India’s premiere digital film Love, Sex aur Dhokha, released in March 2010 under its ALT Entertainment banner. The film emerged as a sleeper hit receiving critical and commercial acclaim from audiences, worldwide.

     

    The company continued the LSD success story with its second production, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, which broke ground at the worldwide box office. Other films to its credit are Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi, Main Tera Hero, Ragini MMS 2, Shaadi Ke Side Effects, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara, Kya SuperKool Hai Hum, Dirty Picture and Shootout at Lokhandwala.

     

    With an impressive slate like that, she has earned Balaji a position amongst the major film studios in India.

     

    Other ventures

     

    But that hasn’t stopped her or the company from venturing into other spaces.

     

    Over the years, from a television content provider, Balaji Telefilms has evolved into a media conglomerate with organisational divisions responsible for television, motion pictures, internet and mobile.

     

    Being the largest player in the industry and after having creating larger-than-life characters, it understands the skill sets required to be successful.

     

    Balaji Telefilms took an initiative to bridge the gap between demand and supply of professionals/actors, by launching its ICE Institute of Creative Excellence. The institute trains tomorrows’ players by teaching them the various skills needed to make a career in the Media and Entertainment industry.

     

    What next for Ekta and Balaji? She is going back to her roots: television. For the past three to four years she has been absolutely focused on making Balaji a force in the film industry, leaving the running of the television productions to mother Shobha Kapoor, Tanusri Dasgupta, Ketan Gupta, among many other professionals. But just last month she was quite clear when she said: “I am a TV producer who works 24 *7. It’s just that I am focusing more on television as I am getting a chance to explore myself.”

    As one philosopher said: “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  And for Balaji and Ekta, it seems like a never ending dream journey.

     

  • Reliance Media Works helps amplify 2014 FIFA World Cup fever

    Reliance Media Works helps amplify 2014 FIFA World Cup fever

    MUMBAI: As the excitement in the air builds, fans all across the world gear up for the biggest football tournament.  From social networking sites, advertisement commercials to sports bars the 2014 FIFA World Cup fever is everywhere. And this year for the first time Reliance MediaWorks is proud to be associated with Sony SIX for this mega event. The company has partnered with the official broadcasters – Multi Screen Media who are using the state of the art sound stages at Film City to shoot Café Rio, a prime time football wrap around show that is being aired on Sony SIX.

     

    Café Rio is a prime time show where experts from the football field and some football legends come together to offer in-depth analysis of player forms, group standings, strategies and the matches being played. With a combination of sports and entertainment this show promises to captivate both the football purists and enthusiastic viewers. The line-up is promising including Peter Crouch, Robbie Fowler, Peter Shilton, Mikael Silvestre, Ellyse Perry, Sunil Chhetri and John Abraham.

     

    For this one month long program, keeping in mind the stringent requirements that involved several elements including live stadium action and studio programming on a daily basis, the entire consolidation was done at the Reliance MediaWorks studio facilities so that the seamlessly integrated programme is available to delight millions of football fans on a daily basis.

     

    Availability of the best in class infrastructure, onsite technical support, high standards of quality & security; all within the reach at a convenient location like Filmcity was the key reason that made this the preferred choice.

     

    Known for their Hollywood benchmarked infrastructure, Reliance MediaWorks currently offer four sound stages for all production requirements for broadcast, film, TVCs & events. The new set of four stages which also have the same technical specifications, will be operational by September 2014.

     

    MSM executive vice president and business head Prasana Krishnan said, “2014 FIFA World Cup is without a doubt the most anticipated event of the year. In order to deliver the very best to our viewers, we had to ensure that everything that goes into the creation of the content is of the very finest quality. Thereby, our preferred choice of high technology studio facility was Reliance MediaWorks.”

     

    Reliance MediaWorks chief executive officer Venkatesh Roddam, added, “After our repeated successful collaboration for Pepsi IPL Extraaa Innings, we are partnering with Multi-Screen Media yet again for Café Rio this time. They constantly offer path breaking programming concepts to the discerning viewers and we at Reliance MediaWorks are happy and proud to be associated in this first of its kind programming initiatives for football in India.”

  • Reliance MediaWorks acquires 30 per cent stake in Prime Focus

    Reliance MediaWorks acquires 30 per cent stake in Prime Focus

    MUMBAI: After its mega announcement a few days ago about Prime Focus World merging with Double Negative to create the world’s largest independent, VFX, stereo conversion and animation company, one of the Ambani brothers has decided to step into the game as well.

     

    Anil Ambani owned Reliance MediaWorks has bought shares in Prime Focus and merged itself with Prime Focus. The trio will now be the world’s largest and most integrated media services group with over 5500 people across 20 locations offering services such as visual effects, stereo 3D conversion, animation and cloud-based digital media solutions that transcend the film, advertising and television industries.

     

    An announcement by the two companies to the BSE states that “the combination brings instant benefits to global clients, with new levels of creativity, technology innovation, truly integrated digital media services, unmatched scale, financial stability and sustainability.”

     

    The new group will also have the world’s first hybrid cloud-enabled media enterprise resource planning. This unique platform virtualises the content supply chain and helps broadcasters, studios, brands, sports and digital businesses manage their business of content by driving creative enablement, enhancing ecosystem efficiencies and sustainability, reducing costs and realising new monetisation opportunities.

     

    Reliance MediaWorks and the promoters of Prime Focus, Naresh and Namit Malhotra will each infuse fresh equity capital of Rs 120 crore into Prime Focus at Rs 52 per share through a preferential allotment, aggregating Rs 240 crore. The equity process will also be used to fund the merger of Prime Focus and Double Negative.

     

    The India and overseas operations of Reliance MediaWorks’ film and media services business will be combined with Prime Focus through a slump sale which means transferring of the whole or part of a business undertaking that is capable of carrying out operations independently for a lump sum consideration without assigning values to individual assets and liabilities. After that, the net consideration will be paid in the form of fresh equity shares of Prime Focus valued at the same share price.

     

    Once the preferential allotment and business combination is done, the shareholding of the Prime Focus’ promoters will come down from 41.48 per cent to 33.5 per cent and Reliance MediaWorks will be 30.2 per cent. The mandatory open offer in Prime Focus has also been announced to the extent of 26 per cent of the fully diluted share capital of Prime Focus at Rs 52 per share as well.

     

    Through this combination, Prime Focus’ will get access to one million square feet of facilities in Film City, Mumbai, 30 per cent stake in Hollywood VFX house- Digital Domain and 100 per cent ownership of LA based digital film restoration firm Lowry Digital.

     

    Reliance Capital states that it wants to primarily focus on its financial services and align its noncore investments with successful entrepreneurs.

     

    Namit Malhotra will be the executive chairman and global CEO of Prime Focus Group. Says he, “This is a very exciting time in the life of Prime Focus. From being able to partner the world’s finest visual effects provider Double Negative, to having the Reliance Group come on board, to help mobilise our strategy in building the bridge between the west and the east. I am very confident about the benefits this combination brings to all our customers, employees and stakeholders worldwide.”

     

    Speaking on the deal, Reliance Group group managing director Amitabh Jhunjhunwala said, “We are hugely excited about the transformational growth opportunity created by the powerful combination of the global film and media services business of Reliance MediaWorks and Prime Focus. Namit is an enormously passionate leader, who has created and run a highly successful global media services business. We are delighted to have the opportunity to support Prime Focus as the company moves to the next orbit of growth under Namit’s dynamic and ‘turbo-charged’ leadership.”

     

     Reliance MediaWorks CEO Venkatesh Roddam said that this was a natural and synergistic combination to optimise resources. “We are very pleased to combine our global film and media services business with Prime Focus. This will create enhanced value and new opportunities for all stakeholders, including customers in India and overseas and our dedicated team of people.”

     

    Commenting on the new media house creation, Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh said, “The proposed transaction reflects a significant step forward in Reliance Capital’s strategy of unlocking value from its investments in sectors other than financial services. We intend to partner and align ourselves with successful entrepreneurs like Namit Malhotra of Prime Focus, who has established high growth businesses, and we will support them in their endeavours to attain global leadership and excellence in their chosen areas of core expertise. This strategy will free up management bandwidth  and resources  in Reliance Capital, enabling us to singularly focus  on, and   further  accelerate  growth  in, our  core  business of asset management, life  and non-life  insurance,  broking and distribution, commercial finance  and related sectors in financial services.”

     

    Similar discussions are underway in relation to unlocking of value from other investments made by Reliance Capital in areas outside financial services, and further announcements will be made at the appropriate stage.

     

    Some of the works handled by the trio include: The Dark Knight Trilogy, Transformers 4, Inception, Gravity, Harry Potter and Avatar. The deal between Reliance MediaWorks and Prime Focus brings integrated services to the Bollywood industry from equipment rental and shooting stages up to final digital distribution.

     

     EY India was the exclusive advisor to Reliance MediaWorks for the transaction and Centrum Capital was the exclusive advisor to Prime Focus. The transaction is expected to go on for a couple of weeks.

     

    Reliance MediaWorks and Prime Focus’s wholly owned company Monsoon Studio has taken 2,30,76,923 equity shares. 6,73,07,692 shares will be given via the open offer.

  • 2014 is coming of age for Prime Focus World: Namit Malhotra

    2014 is coming of age for Prime Focus World: Namit Malhotra

    MUMBAI: Basking in the glory of the success of Academy award winning Gravity and close on the heels of the box office successes of Noah, Non Stop and The Amazing Spiderman 2, Prime Focus World (PFW), the creative services subsidiary of Prime Focus has been busy with Hollywood’s summer line up.

     

    Recently released film credits of PFW are Walt Disney Pictures’ dark fantasy adventure Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie and Warner Bros. Pictures’ sci-fi flick Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise. The team behind the special effects for Maleficent and Edge of Tomorrow are located in London and Mumbai.

     

    “2014 is seeing the coming of age of Prime Focus World as a credible creative services provider to the biggest studios in Hollywood,” said Prime Focus founder and chairman & CEO of Prime Focus World Namit Malhotra. “There is genuine appreciation for our creative prowess, global scale and most importantly our unique business model, all of which have matured over the years. The spectacular success of films that we have collaborated on has only reinforced our overall value proposition in Hollywood.”

     

    In the last five years since PFW went global, it has consistently invested in talent and infrastructure to build capability and capacity to deliver world class visual effects and stereo 3D for highly demanding Hollywood studios. If the summer line-up of 2014 is anything to go by, PFW has achieved a degree of acceptance and credibility no other Indian company in the creative services space has ever managed in Hollywood. PFW’s visual effects and stereo 3D conversion teams have been busy working on some of the biggest Hollywood summer releases, which is almost half of all the mainstream releases from the studios this summer!

     

    Maleficent which opened last week has flown to number 1 at the Box Office on its opening weekend and is the biggest ever debut for star Angelina Jolie. Time magazine in its review has called Edge of Tomorrow which releases on 6 June “a furiously time-looping joy ride and the smartest action film of the early summer season”.

     

    Along with being the Exclusive 3D conversion partner for Edge of Tomorrow, Prime Focus is also the Exclusive 3D conversion partner and VFX provider for Seventh Son, starring EMMY Award winner Julianne Moore (Game Change) and Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) scheduled to be released next year.

     

    Prime Focus World is the exclusive VFX partner on Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, Robert Rodriguez’s long-awaited, ultra-stylized comic book sequel. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is PFW’s largest VFX commission to date and will produce over 2,000 visual effects shots for the stereo 3D movie, currently slated for an August 2014 release.

  • Despite lesser releases, Eros FY-2014 PAT up by 29 per cent to Rs 199.69 crore!

    Despite lesser releases, Eros FY-2014 PAT up by 29 per cent to Rs 199.69 crore!

    BENGALURU: It missed hitting Rs 200 crore PAT by just around Rs 31 lakh in the recently concluded FY-2014.  The Sunil Lulla led Eros International Media Limited (Eros) belongs to a select league of a handful of publicly listed Indian media and entertainment companies that have only grown bigger and bigger in terms of bottom line as well as topline as compared to rest that have made it a norm to show blood across their balance sheets. And all this despite a 10.4 per cent drop in the number of films released to 69 in FY-2014 from 77 in FY-2013!

     

    Last year, the company entered the Rs 1000 Total Income club. This year, it continued its membership in that select peerage and how! In FY-2014, Eros reported a growth of just 6.1 per cent in Total Income (Tot Inc) to Rs 1139.64 crore from Rs 1074.35 crore in FY-2013. As mentioned above, the company recorded a PAT of Rs 199.69 crore (17.5 per cent of Tot Inc) in FY-2014, which was a whopping 29.2 per cent more than the Rs 154.53 crore (14.4 per cent of Tot Inc) in FY-2013.

    Note :  (1)100,00,000=100 lakh = 1 crore = 10 million.

     

    Eros released 30 Hindi films, 37 Tamil/Telugu films and 2 other regional language films in FY-2014 as compared to the 30 Hindi, 44 Tamil and 3 other regional language films in FY-2013.

     

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by Eros in FY-2014 and Q4-2014

     

    Tot Inc in Q4-2014 at Rs 280.97 crore was 8.9 per cent less than the Rs 308.36 crore in Q3-2014 and 83.3 per cent more than the year ago quarter Q4-2013.

     

    PAT in Q4-2014 at Rs 34.54 crore (12.3 per cent of Tot Inc) was 31.2 per cent less than the Rs 50.18 crore (16.3 per cent of Tot Inc) in Q3-2014 and more than triple (3.6 times) the Rs 9.58 crore (6.2 per cent of Tot Inc) in Q4-2013.

     

    Eros reported Total Expense (Tot Exp) for FY-2014 at Rs 641.44 crore (56.3 per cent of Tot Inc), which was 13.9 per cent lower than the Rs 744.81 crore (69.3 per cent of Tot Inc) in FY-2013. Eros Q4-2014 Tot Exp at Rs 209.86 crore (74.7 per cent of Tot Inc) was 4.4 per cent less than the Rs 219.47 crore (71.2 per cent of Tot Inc) in Q3-2014 and 54.1 per cent more than the Rs 136.20 crore (88.9 per cent of Tot Inc) in Q4-2013.

     

    Eros Finance cost in FY-2014 was 3.48 times at Rs 32.71 crore (2.9 per cent of Tot Inc) as compared to the Rs 9.39 crore (0.9 per cent of Tot Inc) in FY-2013. The company’s finance cost in Q4-2014 at Rs 14.52 crore (5.2 per cent of Tot Inc) was almost double (1.97 times) the Rs.7.38 crore (2.4 per cent of Tot Inc) in Q3-2014 and 7.4 times the Rs 1.96 crore (1.3 per cent of Tot Inc) in Q4-2013.

     

    The company’s trade payables and receivables have both gone down in FY-2014 as compared to FY-2013.

    Here are the figures: Trade Payables FY-2014 – Rs 36.98 crore (3.2 per cent of Tot Inc) – down 15.5 per cent from Rs 43.74 crore (4.1 per cent of Tot Inc) in FY-2013.

     

    Trade Receivables – FY-2014 – Rs 151.45 crore (13.3 per cent of Tot Inc) – down 11.1 per cent from Rs 170.44 crore (15.9 per cent of Tot Inc) in FY-2013.

     

    In its press release, Eros has indicated the breakup of revenue for FY-2014 as: Theatrical revenue – Rs 474.9 crore (42 per cent of Total revenue); Overseas Revenue –Rs 293.4 crore (26 per cent of Total revenue) and Other Revenue –Rs 366.4 crore (32 per cent of Total Revenue).

     

    Eros managing director Sunil Lulla said, “This has been an excellent year for the company with strong operational and financial performance. Our strategy to focus on a diversified mix of high, medium and low budget movies, emphasis on regional language films along with monetisation of our catalogue across various platforms has enabled us to deliver such strong performance.”

     

    “We are confident that our leadership position within the industry, monetization of our extensive movie library and positive structural sector trends should enable us to create huge value for all stakeholders going forward. On the back of a well-funded movie slate scheduled for FY-2015, we expect to deliver yet another strong financial performance in the coming year,” added Lulla.

     

    Click here for detailed financial report

    Click here for detailed earning result

     

     

  • FY-2014: Mukta Arts pays producers, distributors share Rs 234 crore; reports loss at Rs 7.34 crore.

    FY-2014: Mukta Arts pays producers, distributors share Rs 234 crore; reports loss at Rs 7.34 crore.

    BENGALURU: Mukta Arts Limited (Mukta Arts) paid Rs 234.09 crore (76 per cent of consolidated net total income from operations or Op Inc of Rs 234.09 crore) as producers and distributors share in FY-2014. The company has reported a consolidated loss of Rs 7.34 crore in FY-2014, which was 5.36 times the loss of Rs 1.37 crore the company had reported in FY-2013. Other Income in FY-2014, which included the proceeds of a keyman insurance policy, cushioned the loss by Rs 4.63 crore, else loss would have been nearly Rs10 crore in the year.

     

    In FY-2013, Mukta Arts paid Rs 269.91 crore or 95 per cent of Op Inc on a consolidated basis towards producers and distributors share. In FY-2013, other income reduced the loss by Rs 2.25 crore.

     

    Note :  (1)100,00,000=100 lakh = 1 crore = 10 million.

     

    (2) Annual figures are on a consolidated basis.

     

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by Mukta Arts for FY-2014 and Q4-2014

     

    Mukta Arts reported Total Income from operations (net) excluding other income in Q4-2014 as Rs 57.07 crore which was 25.6 per cent lower than the Rs 76.67 crore in Q3-2014 and 3.1 per cent less than the Rs 61.91 crore in the year ago quarter Q4-2013.

     

    Consolidated Total Expense for FY-2014 at Rs 313.83 crore (102 per cent of Op Inc) was 14.7 per cent more than the Rs 273.65 crore (98.9 per cent of Op Inc) in FY-2013. Mukta Arts total expense in Q4-2014 at Rs 60.21 crore (105.5 per cent of Op Inc) was 21.4 per cent less than the Rs 76.61 crore (99.9 per cent of Op Inc) in Q3-2014 and 2.7 per cent less than the Rs 61.91 crore (105 per cent of Op Inc) in Q4-2013.

     

    Producers and distributors share expense in Q4-2014 at Rs 48.93 crore (85.7 per cent of Op Inc) was 29 per cent less than the Rs 68.98 crore (90 per cent of Op Inc) in Q3-2014 and 8.9 per cent less than the Rs 53.73 crore (91.2 per cent of Op Inc) in the fourth quarter of last year.

     

    Other expense for FY-2014 at Rs 30.6 crore (9.9 per cent of Op Inc) was 32.3 per cent more than the Rs 23.12 crore (8.35 per cent of Op Inc). In FY-2013, Mukta Arts reported other expense in Q4-2014 at Rs 6.33 crore (11.1 per cent of Op Inc) was 62.7 per cent more than the Rs 3.89 crore (5.1 per cent of Op Inc) and 30.1 per cent more than the Rs 4.87 crore (8.3 per cent of Op Inc) in Q4-2013.

     

    Finance cost is FY-2104 at Rs 6.64 crore (2.2 per cent of Op Inc) was 16.7 per cent more than the Rs 5.69 crore (2.1 per cent of Op Inc) in FY-2013. Mukta Arts spent Rs1.97 crore (3.45 per cent of Op Inc) towards finance cost, which was 31.5 per cent more than the Rs 1.5 crore (1.95 per cent of Op Inc) in Q3-2014 and 53.7 per cent more than the Rs 1.28 crore (2.2 per cent of Op Inc) in Q4-2013.

     

    Mukta Arts reported depreciation of tangible assets as Rs 7.09 crore (2.3 per cent of Op Inc) in FY-2014, which was 1.3 per cent more than the Rs 6.99 crore (2.5 per cent of Op Inc) in FY-2013. Depreciation for Q3-2014 at Rs1.33 crore (2.3 per cent of Op Inc) was 27.1 per cent more than the Rs 1.05 crore (1.4 per cent of Op Inc) in Q3-2014 and was 32.7 per cent more than the Rs1 crore (1.7 per cent of Op Inc) in Q4-2013.

     

    Operating Results for the quarters were: Q4-2014 – loss of Rs 33.5 crore; Q3-2014 – Profit of Rs 0.92 crore; Q4-2013 loss of Rs 2.49 crore.