Pandemic severely impacts theatrical & ad revenues of UFO Moviez

UFO Moviez, India’s largest in-cinema advertising platform, with the power to impact almost 2.0 billion viewers annually through 3,633 screens under the PRIME and POPULAR channels across 1,180 cities and towns, has announced its financial results for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2020.

Financial Highlights: 

Quarter ended December 31, 2020

Theatrical and Advertisement Revenues were severely impacted on account of temporary shut down of cinemas due to COVID-19 Pandemic. However, continued focus on optimising costs and conserving cash has helped the company sustain in this period.

Consolidated revenue stood at â‚¹274 (Q3FY20 – â‚¹1,426) million. EBITDA stood at minus (-)₹227 (Q3FY20 – â‚¹360) million. PBT stood at minus (-)₹372 (Q3FY20 – â‚¹179) million and PAT stood at minus (-)₹282 (Q3FY20– â‚¹274) million. 

Nine months ended December 31, 2020

Consolidated revenue stood at â‚¹580 (9MFY20 – â‚¹3,946) million. EBITDA stood at minus (-)₹677 (9MFY20 – â‚¹919) million. PBT stood at minus (-)₹1,206 (9MFY20 – â‚¹428) million and PAT stood at minus (-)₹921 (9MFY20 – â‚¹320) million. 

Recent Highlights

On January 27, 2021, the Ministry Of Home Affairs (MHA)  removed the restriction of upto 50% seating capacity on Cinemas subject to revised SOPs. On January 31, 2021, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) issued revised Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)allowing 100% seating capacity. 

“2020 was not an ordinary year as economies were decimated and lives were lost due to the pandemic. However, India acted swiftly and was able to control the spread of the virus. Film exhibition industry was one of the most severely impacted sectors. However, with the vaccine roll out, the confidence to socialize has increased," said Kapil Agarwal, Joint Managing Director, “With the Central government allowing Cinemas to operate at 100% seating capacity, cinemas have gradually started reopening. As the content pipeline builds and the number of new movie releases increases, the audiences have gradually started going to cinemas. The Box Office collections of movies like Master and Wonder Woman have been encouraging. To provide a steady supply of films to enable cinema reopening, UFO has also entered the film distribution business. This has had positive impact on the film exhibition industry. We are optimistic about the future of the industry and believe that it will bounce back strongly in 2021.”