BENGALURU: Despite higher average ticket price during the quarter, India’s largest multiplex chain – Inox Leisure (Inox) reported a 38.4 per cent drop in PAT to Rs 6.58 crore as compared to the PAT of Rs 10.62 crore y-o-y and a drop of 35.04 per cent from the Rs 10.13 crore PAT reported during the immediate trailing quarter (Q2-2014).
Inox reported total revenue of Rs 214.27 crore for Q3-2014 which was 2.94 per cent more than the Rs 208.15 crore in Q3-2013, but 9.54 per cent lower than the Rs 236.86 crore in Q2-2014.
Though the average price of ticket during Q3-2014 at Rs 163 was 1.88 per cent higher than the average price of ticket of Rs 160 during FY-2013, Inox saw a 1.7 per cent fall in income from operations during Q3-2014 to Rs 200.37 crore from Rs 203.84 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. Operating Income during Q3-2014 was 12.07 per cent lower than the Rs 227.88 crore of Q2-2014. Lower revenue coupled with lower Exhibition cost and lower Entertainment tax paid by the company seem to indicate a lower occupancy rate, despite tax rebates/waivers in some territories and for some movies, if applicable.
Let us look at the other numbers reported by Inox for Q3-2014…
Total expense for Q3-2014 at Rs 200.36 crore was 7.56 per cent more than the Rs 186.28 crore in Q3-2013 and 4.28 per cent lower than the Rs 209.32 crore in Q2-2014.
As mentioned above, the company paid lower entertainment tax and exhibition cost during the current quarter. Inox paid Rs 25.31 crore as Entertainment Tax during Q3-2014 which was 10.44 per cent lower than the Rs 28.26 crore tax in Q3-2013 and 14.78 per cent lower than the Rs 29.7 crore in Q2-2014.
Exhibition cost incurred at Rs 58.48 crore during Q3-2014 was 5.91 per cent lower than the Rs 57.9 crore in Q3-2013 and 12.41 per cent lower than the Rs 62.2 crore in Q2-2014.
Inox paid 16.9 per cent more towards property rent, conducting fees and common facilities charges during Q3-2014 at Rs 34.58 crore as compared to the Rs 29.58 crore during Q3-2013 and 0.88 per cent more than the Rs 35.28 crore in Q2-2014.
33.41 per cent hike in ‘Other Expenses’ to Rs 48.48 crores in Q3-2014 from Rs 36.64 crore in Q3-2013 and 7.02 per cent from Rs 45.30 crore in Q2-2014 further dented profitability of the company. Also, 22.36 per cent higher Employee cost during Q3-2014 at Rs 13.9 crore as compared to the Rs 11.36 crore in Q3-2013 and 18.6 per cent more than the Rs 11.72 crore in Q2-2014 played a part in damping the profits during the current quarter.
