ITV

Tag: Prime Focus

  • FY-15: Prime Focus revenue up 80%; Q4-2015 YoY revenue up 2.4 times

    FY-15: Prime Focus revenue up 80%; Q4-2015 YoY revenue up 2.4 times

    BENGALURU: Prime Focus Limited (PFL) reported 80 per cent revenue growth for the year ending 30 June, 2015 (FY-2015) at Rs 1607.59 crore as compared to the Rs 892.9 crore during the corresponding 4 quarter (12 month period) of the previous year. Last year, the company had reported revenue of Rs 1081.42 crore for the 15 month period ended 30 June, 2014.

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

    (2) The company had filed results for a fifteen month period ended 30 June, 2014, hence YoY comparison is being done between Q4-2015 and Q5-2014 and QoQ comparison is between Q4-2015 and  Q3-2015 (quarter ended 31 March, 2015).

    YoY, PFL’s revenue increased by 2.4 times in Q4-2015 at Rs 518.21 crore as compared to the Rs 214.99 crore in Q5-2014.

    AnchorThe company’s yearly and quarterly bottom line has been negatively affected due to significant exceptional costs primarily in relation to previously announced divestiture of PFL PLC and planned restructuring / integration costs in relation to the merger with Double Negative.

    The company reported a net loss of Rs 292.22 crore in FY-2015 and a loss of Rs 213.76 crore in Q4-2015. The company’s simple EBIDTA for FY-2015 at Rs 241.23 crore (15 per cent margin) was 22.6 per cent more than the Rs 196.76 crore (19.1 per cent margin) for the 15 month period ended 30 June, 2014. PFL says in its earnings release that EBIDTA for the 12 month period ended 30 June, 2014 was Rs 179.6 crore.

    EBIDTA for Q4-2015 at Rs 86.17 crore (16.6 per cent margin) was more than five times the Rs 14.29 crore (6.6 per cent margin) in Q5-2014, but declined 18 per cent as compared to the Rs 105.15 crore (25 per cent margin) in the immediate trailing quarter.
     

    Let us look at the other numbers reported by PFL:

    Figures A and B below show PFL’s major expense heads. As is obvious, a major expense head for the company is employee benefit expense or EBE.

    PFL’s EBE in Q4-2015 at Rs 263.11 crore (50.8 per cent of TIO) was 13 per cent more the Rs 232.94 crore (64 per cent of TIO) in Q3-2015 and more than double (2.07 times) the Rs 127.11 crore (59.1 per cent of TIO) in Q5-2014.

    Fig B indicates that EBE also shows a linear upward trend in terms of percentage of TIO over the nine quarters starting Q4-2013 until the current quarter Q3-2015. EBE has been the highest in Q4-2015 in terms of absolute rupees, but in terms of percentage of TIO, it was highest in Q3-2015.

    Finance and Interest cost in Q4-2015 at Rs 25.39 crore (4.9 per cent of TIO) was 45.1 per cent more than the Rs 17.50 crore (8.1 per cent of TIO) in Q5-2014 and 78.69 per cent more than the Rs Rs 14.21 crore (3.4 per cent of TIO) Q3-2015.

  • Prime Focus Technologies joins MESA advisory board

    Prime Focus Technologies joins MESA advisory board

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus Technologies, the technology arm of Prime Focus, is continuing to support media and entertainment (M&E) companies by joining the advisory board of the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA).

     

    Prime Focus Technologies will be working with MESA on its mission to support service providers in building efficiencies in the creation, production and distribution of physical and digital media and entertainment.

     

    “As a prominent Cloud solutions provider in the M&E industry, Prime Focus Technologies is constantly looking for ways to advance the development of supply chain infrastructure, content securities and innovation in the industry. Forums such as MESA are critical to the M&E industry as a whole through advocacy efforts, market research and opportunities to interact with other key members. We are proud to be joining as a member of the advisory board,” said Prime Focus Technologies founder and CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan.

     

    MESA’s expansive range of services includes the development and support of special interest groups, events, media and numerous initiatives. Through these pillars, MESA provides support to its members throughout the year in multiple ways while facilitating collaboration and ongoing discussions.

     

    This new partnership comes shortly after the announcement that PFT has signed a deal with HOOQ, a joint venture between Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros. Entertainment. PFT’s Operations Cloud, part of the CLEAR Media ERP Suite will help package and deliver content on HOOQ. CLEAR Operations Cloud helps M&E companies deal with volume and speed needs to service content demand from the growing number of digital outlets globally.

     

    “Prime Focus Technologies is making great strides in advancing the way media and entertainment companies adjust to the digital consumer and we are thrilled to have them join us. Their presence will be key as conversations about the digital age and developing technologies continue to move forward,” said MESA executive director Guy Finley.    

  • Prime Focus & Double Negative ready new VFX facility in Mumbai

    Prime Focus & Double Negative ready new VFX facility in Mumbai

    mumbai: Prime Focus World (PFW), the creative services division of Prime Focus Limited, and VFX house Double Negative (Dneg) have entered the next phase of expansion plans with the building of a new VFX facility in Mumbai.

     

    Located in Mumbai’s Film City, the new studio will be built to the same exacting standards as Dneg’s facilities in London, Vancouver and Singapore, with particular emphasis on providing one of the best working environment for artists.

     

    Dneg’s technical infrastructure, tools and pipeline will be rolled out to the new facility as part of the build, mirroring Dneg’s other international locations.

     

    Recruitment roadshows are being planned throughout India and key international locations to attract the best VFX talent across all levels of experience to work exclusively on Dneg VFX projects. 

     

    Movies already slated for work in Mumbai include The Huntsman for Universal starring Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt, and Inferno, Ron Howard’s latest movie based on the Dan Brown novel, amongst others.

     

    The new VFX facility will also offer rigorous training programmes for staff with the intention of creating Asia’s leading ‘VFX Campus,’ complete with specifically-built classrooms and training areas, and offering Dneg’s training programmes.

     

    “Prime Focus is the undisputed industry leader in India and knows the market, the culture and the landscape better than any other company. This collaboration plays to the strengths of both companies, the intention being to create a world-class VFX facility that can proudly sit alongside the rest of Dneg’s global network,” said Double Negative CEO Matt Holben.

     

    “This is another great step forward for Prime Focus World and Double Negative, Prime Focus is committed to supporting Dneg in achieving its vision of becoming a truly global company in the high-end film industry, and this new state-of-the-art facility will help them to remain creative and competitive across all of their locations, and to continue producing award-winning visual effects work that is second-to-none,” added Prime Focus founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra. 

     

    Dneg and PFW have recently collaborated on a number of shows, providing VFX and stereo conversion services on projects such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator: Genisys and Ant-Man. Upcoming projects include Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Insurgent, Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, Tarzan, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Spectre.

  • Prime Focus dominates eight Indian nominations at Apollo Awards

    Prime Focus dominates eight Indian nominations at Apollo Awards

    NEW DELHI: Eight Indian entries have been shortlisted for the Apollo Awards for television programming in Asia to be presented next month in Singapore.

     

    There are a total of 15 categories for the awards, to be announced 18 June in conjunction with BroadcastAsia 2014 – the 19th International Digital Multimedia & Entertainment Technology Exhibition and Conference, at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

     

    First launched in 2005, the Apollo Awards is an initiative aimed at honouring the best in production and post-production across Asia Pacific, with a strong focus on the creative and technical mastery behind the scenes.

     

    In Direction – Short Form category, the Indian entry is Suresh Eriyat for Kitkat Astronaut- Diwali by Studio Eeksaurus Production, and this programme has also been shortlisted in Art Direction by SandeepShelhar and Ashok.

     

    Prakash Kurup and Huzefa Lokhandwala of Prime Focus have been shortlisted for two programmes – Mahindra Taqdeer and Royal Challenger in Editing – Short Form category. 

     

    Swapnil Patil of Studio Eeksaurus Production has been nominated in 2D Animation for two programmes: Rotary Fateline and Rotary Heartline.

     

    In the Visual Effects/CGI – Long Form, the Indian entry nominated is Stefen Fangmeier and Merzin Tavaria of Prime Focus for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

     

    Prime Focus also gets the nomination in the Visual Effects// CGI – Short Form for Prakash Kurup and Huzefa Lokhandwala for the programme Panasonic.

     

    The 23-member jury includes one Indian namely Studio Eeksaurus founder and creative director Suresh Eriyat.

     

    In recent years, the fluid nature of talent migration in the production and post-production industry, coupled with the growth of Asia Pacific’s media and entertainment industry, has drawn top talent to the region and elevated the quality of work produced in this region.

     

    To reflect this growing expertise, the Apollo Awards seeks to showcase and reward more niche specialties in production and post-production in the years to come.

     

    Since the launch of its new and improved version in 2013, the Apollo Awards has garnered attention from industry players as the nature of the awards is uncommon in this region.

     

    With a distinguish jury of academic excellence and industry expertise in the technical and creative fields, and the results tabulated and audited by an international auditing firm, this is the highly anticipated Award for production and post-production artists in the Asia Pacific region.

  • Prime Focus raises Rs 240 crore; completes RMW transaction

    Prime Focus raises Rs 240 crore; completes RMW transaction

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus has raised Rs 240 crore by way of issue of equity shares worth Rs 120 crore each to Monsoon Studio Private and Reliance MediaWorks (RMW), at Rs 52 per share, on percent basis.

     

    As part of the transaction, the India and overseas operations of RMW’s film and media services business was combined with Prime Focus through a slump sale. The net consideration was paid in the form of fresh equity shares of PFL valued at Rs 52 per share.

     

    With this, Prime Focus has completed the transaction to combine with RMW’s global film and media services business. The transaction was first announced in July 2014 and received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on 15 December, 2014.

     

    The promoters of PFL and RMW had earlier announced the mandatory open offer in Prime Focus, to the extent of 26 per cent of the fully diluted share capital of PFL, at Rs 52 per share, in compliance with applicable SEBI rules and regulations. The open offer closed on 16 January, 2015.

     

    The tryst with RMW was announced close on the heels of Prime Focus’ Hollywood facing creative services subsidiary Prime Focus World merging its VFX business with acclaimed VFX house Double Negative. The combination of RMW – PFL and Academy Award winning Double Negative creates the world’s largest and the most integrated media services group with over 5500 people present across 20 locations offering visual effects, stereo 3D conversion, animation, and cloud-based digital media solutions that transcend the film, advertising and television industries.

     

    Prime Focus and Double Negative are currently working on a action-packed slate of upcoming movies, including Avengers: Age of Ultron, Terminator: Genisys, Ant-Man, Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, Mission Impossible 5, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Recently delivered shows include Kingsman: The Secret Service, Ex Machina, Jupiter Ascending, Seventh Son and In The Heart Of The Sea.

     

    “We have completed the last leg of a protracted but path breaking transaction today. From here on our full focus will be to drive the integration process and unlock synergies for the benefit of our customers, employees and stakeholders worldwide. Today we are best positioned to offer outstanding creativity, cutting edge technology, integrated Digital Media Services, never before scale, financial robustness and sustainability,” said Prime Focus founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra. 

     

  • Prime Focus sells UK broadcast post production biz to blue 2.0

    Prime Focus sells UK broadcast post production biz to blue 2.0

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus has sold its UK broadcast post production business to a new company called blue 2.0.

     

    Under the terms of the agreement, which both parties expect to be finalised in two weeks, blue 2.0 will take over the Prime Focus UK Broadcast facility at 58 Old Compton Street and the provision of its long-form, drama, short-form, entertainment and DI services.

     

    The new company will employ the majority of the current Prime Focus staff at Old Compton Street, and the phased transition of the business to the new owners will begin immediately. The specific terms of the transaction have not been disclosed and they do not exceed prudent financial materiality thresholds.

     

    Prime Focus is retaining its content services offering (which provides services to long-standing clients such as the BFI and the Imperial War Museum), and a number of large-scale contracts with clients such as Red Bee Media, a major car manufacturer and a global consumer product brand. These contracts will continue to be serviced by Prime Focus staff from the company’s facility at 2 Bourchier Street.

     

    Prime Focus managing director Ramki Sankaranarayanan said, “Following an extensive process in which we have considered a number of offers, Prime Focus has reached an agreement for the sale of its UK Broadcast Post offering. We would like to thank all of our UK Broadcast clients for their support over the years, and assure them that the phased transition of the business to the new owners has been constructed to be as seamless as possible. The divestment of this business allows us to concentrate our full efforts on our core creative services divisions (Prime Focus World and Double Negative) and our cloud technology business (Prime Focus Technologies) in addition to the broad spectrum of media services business in India.”

     

    blue 2.0 managing director Parvinder Bhatia added, “This deal marks the return of the iconic ‘blue’ brand in a new digital avatar – ‘blue 2.0’. Backed by a group of private equity investors, blue 2.0 will offer broadcast clients a boutique post production offering with a focused approach and a personalized service. blue 2.0 plans to be a major new player in the Broadcast post production space and plans are underway to add more capacity and additional service offerings such as VFX to the existing post offering very soon.”

     

    Having served as managing director of Prime Focus UK broadcast post production services for the last four years, Rowan Bray is moving on to explore new opportunities. Sankaranarayanan said: “I would like to thank Rowan for her commitment and tireless hard work over the last four years. Her dedication to providing the highest levels of customer service has been greatly appreciated, and we wish her all the best with the new opportunities that she is considering.”

  • Prime Focus company Double Negative bags VFX Oscar for ‘Interstellar’

    Prime Focus company Double Negative bags VFX Oscar for ‘Interstellar’

    MUMBAI: VFX house Double Negative, which is a part of Prime Focus Media Services bagged the Academy Award for visual effects for their spectacular work on Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.

     

    The award was presented to one of the founding members of Double Negative and VFX supervisors Paul Franklin and Andrew Lockley, SFX Supervisor Ian Hunter and New Deal Studios’ VFX supervisor Scott Fisher at the 87th Annual Academy Awards held on 22 February at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles.

     

    This is the second Oscar for Double Negative and Franklin, having previously won for Nolan’s Inception. Interstellar beat other nominees that included Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men: Days of Future Past. A week ago Double Negative had also won the BAFTA for Special Visual Effects for the same film.

     

    Prime Focus founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra said, “This is an incredibly proud moment for all of us at Prime Focus and Double Negative. I want to congratulate, Alex (Hope), Matt (Holben), Paul (Franklin) and the entire team of Double Negative for bringing home this exceptional honor. I have always been a great admirer of Mr. Nolan’s films and hence it is really heartening for me to see our work on Interstellar being recognized as the world’s best. On this joyous occasion I want to reaffirm our commitment to help Double Negative continue on its path of creative excellence that is second to none.”

  • Q2-2015: Prime Focus revenue up 43.3 percent, loss widens by Rs 36 crore

    Q2-2015: Prime Focus revenue up 43.3 percent, loss widens by Rs 36 crore

    BENGALURU: Prime Focus Limited (PFL) reported 48.3 per cent growth in Income from Operations (TIO) in the quarter ended 31 December, 2015 (Q2-2015, current quarter) to Rs 316.67 crore from Rs 222.33 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter (quarter ended 31 December 2013, or Q3-2014) but was 10.7 per cent lower than the Rs 356.96 crore in the immediate trailing quarter Q1-2015 (q-o-q).

     

    Notes:

     

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

     

    (2) The company had filed results for a fifteen month period ended 30 June 2014, hence y-o-y comparison is being done between Q2-2015 and Q3-2014 and q-o-q comparison is between Q2-2015 and  Q1-2015 (quarter ended 30 September 2014).

     

    The company’s loss widened by Rs 36.17 crore in Q2-2015 as compared to the profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 10.33 crore (4.6 per cent of TIO) and a loss of Rs 22.01 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.The company says that loss for the quarter widened primarily due to non-cash tax charges, adverse FX fluctuation, residual exceptional integration expenses and finance charges.

     

    PFL, in its earnings release for the previous quarter (Q1-2015), had said that loss for Q1-2015 had risen to Rs 22.02 crore because margins had been impacted primarily due to seasonal effects and due to significant duplication of costs in the creative services business in the first quarter post-merger. The company had initiated a global Integration process at its London, Vancouver and Indian facilities across both these entities. Consequently, the effects of the first phase of one time integration costs were also reflected in the financials claimed PFL. In its current quarter earnings release, PFL says Global integration of DNeg and PFW was proceeding as expected, with major integration expenses already incurred.

     

    PFL’s simple EBIDTA excluding other income and based on the numbers submitted by it to the stock exchanges at Rs 35.48 crore was 20.9 per cent less than the EBIDTA of Rs 48.88 crore in the year ago quarter, but was a whopping 67.4 per cent more than the Rs 21.19 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Click here to read the full report

  • Prime Focus World wins Lumiere for ‘Sin City 2’

    Prime Focus World wins Lumiere for ‘Sin City 2’

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus World (PFW) has won the ‘Lumiere’ for its spectacular work on Sin City: A Dame to Kill For at the International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society’s 6th Annual 3D Creative Arts Awards held in Los Angeles on 28 January, 2015.

     

    The Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller directed ultra-stylized comic book sequel Sin City 2 was awarded in the ‘Best Stereography – Live Action’ category and PFW was the exclusive VFX and 3D conversion provider as well as equity partner.

     

    The 3D Creative Arts Awards honours the best in 3D image making, recognising outstanding achievement across all forms of creative content. Prime Focus founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra received the award at a function held at the Warner Bros. Studios, which was attended by eminent Hollywood personalities.

     

    Accepting the award, Malhotra said, “This is an incredibly proud moment for all of us at Prime Focus World. Sin City 2 has been our largest commission to date and the whole global construct of Prime Focus came together in achieving something that I believe only Prime Focus would have been able to do. This was an opportunity to not only put our best foot forward creatively and technically, but also to take the next step in terms of defining a new business model. This was a huge commitment: to our filmmaking partners, in helping to make this film happen; to the industry, in showing that there is another way for companies such as Prime Focus to engage; and to our own future. I’m delighted with the way this has played out.”

     

    Prime Focus chief creative director and co-founder Merzin Tavaria added, “We accept this independent industry recognition with great humility and pride. Our association with Sin City 2 has been a huge milestone in our global journey. Challenging opportunities such as these have enabled Prime Focus World to redefine 3D experience for the audiences’ world over and establish our leadership position in 3D conversion industry. We would like to thank the International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society for consistently acknowledging our work and honouring us three times in succession, which only validates our best-in-class creative credentials to deliver high quality 3D to the world’s most advanced film making community, Hollywood.”

     

    2014 was a distinguished year for PFW’s 3D team as it delivered the biggest line up of Hollywood’s summer releases – Noah, The Amazing Spiderman 2, Maleficent, Edge of Tomorrow, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sin City: A Dame to Kill for.

  • Prime Focus inks technology licensing deal with Gener8

    Prime Focus inks technology licensing deal with Gener8

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus Group has entered into a licensing and 3D conversion partnership with Gener8 Media Corp.

     

    As per the terms of the definitive agreement, Prime Focus will enter into an exclusive worldwide license to use the company’s proprietary 3D conversion technology throughout the entertainment industry.

    The Gener8 brand and team, which has become synonymous with top-quality 3D conversion in Hollywood, will continue to provide even more capacity for the 3D conversion business with help from the Prime Focus worldwide workforce. This will give Hollywood more confidence in Gener8’s ability to perform 3D conversion on a larger volume of movies. Further, by licensing the company’s technology, Prime Focus will push the quality and technical standards of the 3D even higher.

    “We could not hope for a better partner in this transaction, and we strongly believe the partnership will be good for Hollywood and the 3D conversion industry. This is the absolute perfect agreement for both parties–it facilitates the spread of technology to help improve the quality for all in the industry, while also allowing Gener8 to prove it can handle greater volume, which has been what has held back Gener8’s ability to grow. It is exciting to tap into Prime Focus’s production systems, experience and workforce,” said Gener8 CEO Rory Armes.

    “We are focused on building a comprehensive creative services business, with an emphasis on visual effects and 3D conversion services. Our strength to date has been our significant offshore capabilities, which have now been enhanced by our technology partnership with Gener8. As well, with our recent merger with Reliance MediaWorks, we can leverage the Reliance infrastructure as a back end to help Gener8 increase capacity. This partnership will harness the strengths of both companies to create the best options for Hollywood in terms of 3D conversion and visual effects and leverage the existing workforce and scale of Prime Focus’s production capacity in India,” added Prime Focus CEO Namit Malhotra.

    Upon transaction closing, Prime Focus will enter into a five-year worldwide exclusive license agreement to use its 3D technology. Total consideration payable by Prime Focus to Gener8 over the five-year period will range between $11.5 million to $16.5 million. The two companies will also enter into a Technology Services Agreement, where Gener8 will provide technical service and support on a cost recovery basis. Proceeds from the transaction will be used to grow Gener8’s 3D technology as well as its other new and disruptive technologies, Cumul8 and Reelhouse.