Vista lifts annual net profit 26.7% on market share growth

Tuesday 26th February 2019

Vista Group’s annual net profit jumped 26.7 percent as its businesses increased their market share around the world.

The cinema technology company’s net profit attributable to shareholders for calendar 2018 rose to $12.3 million from $9.7 million in 2017. Revenue rose 22.6 percent to $130.7 million – 61 percent of which is annually recurring.

Vista says in a statement that it has matched “the performance record the global business and investor market has come to expect from this leading New Zealand tech sector company.”

It claims 40 percent of the world’s large circuit cinemas. Its founding and largest business, Vista Entertainment Solutions, added 1,013 new cinema sites in the year, including 199 in China, taking the total to 7,202 with 958 in China.

Excluding China, Vista says its global market share increased to 48 percent and VES’ earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) margin improved two percentage points to 31 percent.

“Strategically, the signing of integrated group agreements with Cineworld Group and Odeon Cinemas Group provide a platform for continued growth and deployment of other group company products,” Vista says.

Movio, its data-driven marketing and analytics solution for the film industry, lifted revenue 47 percent to $22.8 million and its ebitda by 74 percent.

Its other smaller and new businesses contributed with speed of growth. Powster – a business providing services to engage with cinema-goers – created more than 1,750 online ‘movie destinations’. That represented 31 percent growth and led to a 52 percent rise in revenue.

“Vista Group’s strategy has been to create technology-driven efficiencies in the film industry to benefit industry participants,” the company says.

It cited movieXchange as an example. MX Film is a new online platform that delivers movie promotional media from the cloud directly from film distributor to cinema exhibitors; MX Tickets enables online listing globally of movie showtimes information and, via third-party partners, the sale of movie tickets.

“On the product front, the transition to a fully cloud-based Vista Cinema moves significantly forward with the first customer cinema sites deployed and running live.”

Chief executive Kimbal Riley says the company has achieved consistent growth, increased income and profitability.

“As a business, we have a shared vision to be leader in software and data solutions across the film industry; our 2018 result is evidence that we have a highly committed and connected team delivering on and progressing toward that vision,” Riley says.

Operating cash flow in the year rose to $27.6 million from $11 million in 2017.

Among the milestones Vista achieved in the year, it signed Aeon, Cineworld, Marcus, Odean and Pathe as customers.

Vista will pay a final dividend of 2.1 cents per share, up from 1.74 cents the previous year, representing 50 percent of net profit. The total annual payout of 3.1 cents per share is up 27 percent.

Vista shares closed at $4 on Monday and have risen about 58 percent in the past 12 months.

(BusinessDesk)

Comments from our readers

No comments yet