Inox Leisure delivers a flop show
Shares of Inox Leisure are down 5.5% or by Rs. 4.60, and currently trading at 80.80 a piece, on strong volumes. Share had touched a low of 78.20 on BSE a while back, before recovering modestly. Company, with presence in 40 cities through 74 multiplexes and 288 screens aggregating 78,913 seats, announced poor financial results for second quarter and half year ended 30th September 2013 yesterday, when markets remained closed on account of Eid.
While quarterly revenue of Rs. 237 crore was up 3% sequentially, net profit contracted by 29% to Rs. 10.1 crore in Q2 from Rs. 14.2 crore in Q1, due to extra-ordinary loss of Rs. 4.58 crore (pre-tax) on sale of 45 lakh shares in the company held by Inox Benefit Trust at a loss of about Rs. 10.18 per share, book value of which was close to Rs. 75.10 per share.
Inox had acquired rival Fame in FY12 and merged two companies in July this year. Subsequently, Inox Benefit Trust was allotted 3.46 crore shares in Inox in lieu of shares held by Inox in Fame, for the benefit of Inox.
Although company’s H1FY14 EPS of Rs. 3.01 is higher than FY13’s Rs. 1.92, the significant and extra-ordinary nature of loss of Rs. 4.6 crore has not pleased the market. However, festive and vacation season in Q3, which is traditionally the strongest quarter for distribution companies, may just turn-around the company’s profitability.
On a separate note, Future Group’s Kishore Biyani has been inducted on company’s board as Independent Director as well as member of the Audit Committee, with immediate effect.