Film exhibition and distribution firm PVR today posted a 12.86% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 16.14 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 on the back of strong growth in footfalls.
For the three months ended September 30, 2011, the company's consolidated net profit stood at Rs 14.30 crore.
"This has been an excellent quarter for our cinema business. There was a double-digit growth in footfalls by 11% and profitability grew also because of growth in ticket pricing by 10-11%," PVR Chief Financial Officer Nitin Sood told PTI.
PVR's total net income from operations registered an increase of 36.5% to Rs 189.81 crore during the quarter ended September 30, 2012, from Rs 139.05 crore during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
"This quarter (July-September) did not have a lot of big releases but the smaller films were surprise successes... The content pipeline ahead is strong. It looks promising as a slew of big releases like Skyfall, Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Talaash," Sood said.
Commenting on the company's expansion plans, Sood said: "This quarter, we added 24 screens (taking the total count to 197 screens). In the coming months, we will add another 50 screens and close the fiscal with about 250 screens," he said.
The capex for screen expansion was about Rs 150 crore, of which 60% has been used, Sood added.
During the first half of the year, PVR added six new multiplexes with 31 screens at Jalandhar, Ujjain, Ludhiana, Nagpur, Bilaspur and Pune.
The company, at present, operates 44 properties with 197 screens in 27 cities across the country.
PVR's movie exhibition business contributed Rs 176.13 crore, while movie production and distribution segment and bowling centres vertical contributed Rs 7.21 crore and Rs 8.70 crore, respectively, to the quarter's revenues.
During the quarter, PVR had 9.1 million footfalls in its cinemas, up by 28% year-on-year, while food and beverage (F&B) revenues grew by 28% y-o-y.
The firm operates three bowling alleys in Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore under 'PVR BluO' brand. It plans to add three more centres in Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh.
The company's scrip closed at 226.80 apiece, down 0.07% from its previous close on the BSE.