PVR and INOX Leisure, two of India’s biggest theatre chains that had announced their merger last month, have a combined pipeline of 2000 screens and they aim to double this in the next seven years, Siddharth Jain, Director of Inox Leisure, said in a Business Update Conference Call with investors.
“We have almost 2,000 screens in our pipeline combined, and our stated goal is that we want to double our size over the next seven years,” Jain said, responding to a query about future goals of the merger. He added this will require at least Rs 4,000 crore of capital expenditure (CAPEX).
On March 27, PVR and INOX Leisure announced a merger to form a joint film exhibition company. The combined organisation will be named PVR INOX Limited, with the branding of existing screens to continue as PVR and INOX, respectively. New cinemas opened after the merger will be branded as PVR INOX.
While Pavan Kumar Jha will serve as the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board, Ajay Bijli will step in as the Managing Director of the new organisation. Sanjeev Kumar is to be appointed as the Executive Director, and Jain will be taking on the position of Non-Executive Non-Independent Director.
Talking about whether the upcoming screens might clash with the ones that already exist, Jain noted that out of the 2,000 screens, only about 50 may be competing with each other. Acknowledging that putting screens up that compete with each other would be counter-productive, he added that they “have not looked at it that deeply.”
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Jain also said that while both companies want to explore the international market, their current focus is to expand their business in India and create the largest multiplex chain in the country.
Earlier, in a press statement announcing the merger, it was reported that the combined organisation would also work towards taking world-class cinema experience closer to consumers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, in addition to countering adversities resulting from the rise of various OTT platforms and the after-effects of the pandemic.
Currently, PVR operates 871 screens across 181 properties in 73 cities, while INOX operates 675 screens across 160 properties in 72 cities.