Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Pinewood Shepperton Studios See Increased Film Revenues, Operating Profit

Studios operator Pinewood Shepperton's unaudited six month results for the year ended September 30 show a marked improvement over the last comparable period. Before-tax profits are at £3M largely reversing a £5.4M loss in 2011. Revenues were £27.1M, up from £24.6M and operating profit jumped from £3.7M to £6.1M. Specifically, revenues from film were £18.8M, up from £16.4M. During the period, the UK facilities hosted Disney's Maleficent; Marvel's Thor: The Dark World; Working Title and Universal's Les Misérables; Paramount's latest Jack Ryan pic, Maryland; Universal's Fast And Furious 6, Marv Films/Kick Ass 2 Productions' Kick Ass 2 and Eon, MGM and Sony's Skyfall. Pinewood Shepperton CEO Ivan Dunleavy said 'The number of film productions contracted so far for next year is encouraging and the Board looks forward to the future with confidence.' TV revenues, however, were down to £2.5M from £3.6M in the earlier period. That was due to the increased film activity that saw those productions spill over to the TV studios.

In the past six months, the company has started work on a new 45,000 sq ft studio facility that will help make up for a lack of capacity that has sent some potential customers to other studios. It also entered an agreement with the Isle of Man Treasury to source and advise on film investment opportunities for a £25M fund. Construction of Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios is expected to be complete in May 2013 and a 60,500 sq ft water tank at Pinewood Indomina Studios in the Dominican Republic reached practical completion in mid-October, with stages due to be completed by March 2013.

Former group COO and group CFO of EMI, Ruth Prior, has also joined the Board as an independent non-executive director.

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