PVR Inox Ltd (PVRINOX) Q2FY27 Concall Transcript - Sep-2026 Qtr
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Moderator (ICICI Securities Limited): Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the PVR INOX Limited Q2 FY '25 earnings conference call, hosted by ICICI Securities Limited. As a
Moderator (ICICI Securities Limited): Sir, all participants lines will be the listen only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Niran Dhumal from ICICI Securities. Thank you and over to you, Mr. Niran.
Niran Dhumal (ICICI Securities): Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to PVR Inox Limited Q2 FY27 post results earnings call. The call will start with brief management remarks on the earnings performance followed by a Q&A session. PVR Inox management will be represented by Mr. Ajay Bijli, Managing Director, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Executive Director, Mr. Gaurav Sharma, Chief Financial Officer and other senior management personnel. Over to you, sir.
Ajay Bijli (PVR INOX Limited): Good evening, everyone. Can you guys hear me?
Niran Dhumal (ICICI Securities): Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Ajay Bijli (PVR INOX Limited): Yeah, good evening everyone. This is Ajay Bijli. I'd like to welcome you to our call to discuss PVR Inox's unaudited results for the quarter and half year ended September 30th, 2026. The earnings presentation and results were uploaded to our website and the stock exchanges earlier today. Box office growth momentum continued in Q2 FY27, which was a landmark quarter for Indian cinema. Industry gross box office collection reached 4,433 crores, the highest quarterly collection on record and the first time the industry crossed 4,000 crores in a single quarter. Industry box office grew 23% year-on-year, following 20% growth on Q1. Building on a record FY26, industry collections grew 22% to INR 7,618 crores in the first half of this fiscal year, underscoring sustained momentum in theatrical moviegoing. What is especially encouraging is a range of content behind the growth. English language cinema had a standout quarter with collections growing 87% to 1,024 crores, crossing 1,000 crores in a quarter for the first time. Spider-Man: Brand New Day became India's highest-grossing English movie ever at 608 crores of box office. Christopher Nolan's Odyssey grossed 233 crore rupees with exceptional demand in premium immersive formats like IMAX. Together they show the strong appeal of both franchise and non-franchise Hollywood content in India. Even a re-release Avengers: Endgame Encore grossed 45 crores over a four-week theatrical run, indicating strong consumer demand for premium cinematic experiences. In Hindi the quarter was led by the exceptional performance of Hanuman-Ansh, which grossed 351 crores. Mirzapur The Movie deserves a special mention, a hit streaming series was taken to the big screen as a feature film for the first time and it went on to collect 267 crores of the box office. We see this as the beginning of a new trend. It reinforces what we have said on earlier calls, a theatrical release is where the biggest stories become events, and streaming can widen the audience that comes to the cinema. Sequels such as Awarapan 2 and Dhamaal 4 were the other successful hits. Regional cinema also witnessed a strong box office growth with star-led spectacles like Jananayagan in Tamil and Toxic in Kannada, grossing 200 crores and 296 crores respectively. Irumudi in Telugu and Bethlehem in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit in Malayalam were other authentic regional blockbusters during the quarter. Growth is now coming from a wide range of films across languages, genres, and budgets from rooted word-of-mouth successes to star-led spectacles. We welcomed 46.3 million guests during the quarter, up 4% year-on-year, as occupancy rose to 30.4%. Average ticket price and food and beverage spend per head each grew 14% year-on-year, reaching 298 rupees and 153 rupees respectively. This is also our best ever quarter for revenue, EBITDA, and PAT. On an Ind AS 116 116-adjusted basis, total income grew 17% to 200- 2,133 crores. EBITDA rose 44% to 475 crore rupees, and EBITDA margin expanded around 420 basis points to 22.3% driven by strong operating leverage. PAT more than doubled to 273 crores. This marks our sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue growth. For the first half, we reported total income of 3,775 crores, up 15% year-on-year. EBITDA
Ajay Bijli (PVR INOX Limited): of 705 crore rupees, up 56% year on year and PAT of 344 crores, up 233% year on year. These numbers show how the business has changed since the merger. Our EBITDA margin was 22.3% this quarter and 18.7% for the first half, against 17% to 18% before COVID at higher occupancy levels. Merger synergies, cost discipline, and capital efficiencies have made PVR INOX a structurally stronger business. It is also showing in our returns. Our return on capital employed has improved from 10.2% in FY '26 to 16.5% on a trailing 12-month basis, above the pre-COVID benchmark of around 13%. During H1, we generated 604 crores of free cash flow and repaid 259 crores of debt. As our balance sheet strengthened, we returned part of surplus capital to shareholders in September through a maiden share share buyback of 300 crores while retaining sufficient capital for growth. Even after this payout, we ended September with net cash of 141 crores, up from 81 crores in June. With the company turning net cash positive in Q1, the board has also approved a capital allocation and dividend distribution policy. While our earlier policy was limited to dividends, the new policy provides a broader framework for capital allocation. The framework sets out three priorities. First, we will continue to invest for growth in new screens, premium formats, and technology while maintaining the quality of our circuits. Second, we will keep the balance sheet strong, with net debt to EBITDA remaining within 0.5x after eight after any distribution. Third, from the surplus that remains, we expect to return around 30% of our annual surplus cash flow to shareholders through dividends, buybacks, or a combination of the two, with the timing and quantum at the board's discretion. The policy is available on our website now. On expansion, we opened 24 new screens across six new cinemas in the first half, predominantly under the asset-light models. Our network now spans 1,797 screens across 114 cities in India and Sri Lanka. During the half, we also exited 25 screens, the majority of which were loss making. We remain on track to open around 90 to 100 new screens in FY '27, with the bulk of the openings in the second half, mainly under capital-light formats. Our first smart cinema opened in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, in September, introducing an affordable capital-light format designed for tier-3 and tier-4 markets. We expect to open two or three more smart cinemas this fiscal. Looking ahead, the film slate is promising across languages. In Hindi, we have Ramayana Part 1 in November, Shah Rukh Khan's King in December, Love and War, and Golmaal 5 in Q4. Pan-India and regional titles include Chiranjeevi's Kaaka, and Prabhas' Spirit. Hollywood has an accept especially exciting lineup with The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Avengers: Doomsday, Dune: Part Three, and Jumanji: Open World. Beyond the films, we are giving audiences more reasons to visit and more ways to engage with our brand. Value offers such as weekday morning shows at 99, Friday first shows at 149, and front-row seats from 79 are bringing in more price-sensitive moviegoers. In food, we are taking our brand beyond the cinema through home delivery, grab-and-go counters, outdoor catering, and our in-house food brands. And through live events and starting sporting telecasts, we are making better use of our screens outside peak movie hours. We enter the second half of FY '27 with record earnings, a structurally stronger margin profile, a net cash balance sheet, and an exciting content calendar ahead. We are confident we can build on this momentum while further improving the quality of our earnings, cash generation, and returns. With that, I open the floor for questions. Thank you.
Moderator: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Avneesh Roy from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Avneesh Roy (Nuvama): Yeah, congrats and great set of numbers. My first question is on the smart screen which you have opened in Muzaffarpur. So, if you could tell us how is the pricing, how is the CapEx, why are you calling it smart, and
Avneesh Roy (Nuvama): what will be the plan in terms of this capex like model in terms of the lower tier cities next two years, what is the broad plan you have? How many openings?
Ajay Bijli (PVR INOX Limited): Well, you know, first project Sorry, you want to ask another question or should I answer this?
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