Six months net loss of $176.41 million

Movie company Palace Amusement is suffering under COVID-19 with most of its cinemas being closed, resulting in a massive 90 per cent fall off in revenues for the six-month period ended December 31, 2020.

Palace Amusement recorded total revenues of $66.62 million for the period compared with the $669.90 million recorded for corresponding period in 2019. Total revenue for the December quarter decreased 88 per cent to total $37.14 million relative to the $299.91 million recorded for same period in 2019.

Direct expenses for the period under review amounted to $192.98 million, a 66 per cent decrease when compared with the $575.47 million recorded for the same period in 2019. As such, gross loss for the period came out at $126.35 million versus a gross profit of $94.44 million in 2019.

Meanwhile, gross loss for the quarter amounted to $55.14 million compared to a profit of $29.35 million for the corresponding quarter of 2019.

Big drop in admin expenses

Administrative expenses, for the six months ended December 31, 2020, decreased by 51 per cent to total $46.77 million when compared to $96.33 million recorded for the comparable period in the prior year. Notably, other operating income for the six months totalled $3.70 million relative to the other operating income of $3.94 million booked in the same period for 2019.

Consequently, operating loss for the six months period amounted to $169.43 million relative to an operating profit of $2.04 million in 2019. For the December quarter, operating loss totalled $78.01 million compared to the operating loss of $16.77 million booked in 2019.

For the six months period, finance costs rose from $1.89 million in 2019 to $6.75 million booked in 2020. As a result, loss before tax amounted to $176.18 million relative to a profit of $149,000 booked in 2019.

There was a taxation charge of $234,000 (2019: nil), as a result, net loss for the six months period amounted to $176.41 million relative to the net profit of $149,000 recorded in the corresponding period for 2019. For the December quarter, net loss amounted to $81.70 million, compared to a loss of $17.98 million recorded for the same quarter in 2019.

Total comprehensive loss jumps to $173.10 million

Total comprehensive loss for the period amounted to $173.10 million compared to a comprehensive income of $2.52 million for the corresponding period in 2019. Loss per share (LPS) for the period totalled $122.73 relative to earnings per share of $0.07 in 2019.

For the December quarter, Palace Amusement recorded LPS of $56.85 relative to the LPS of $12.52 for the comparable period in 2019. The twelve month trailing LPS is $192.26.

As at December 31, 2020, the movie company had total assets of $1.02 billion, a 35 per cent increase when compared to $759.34 million in the prior year. This growth resulted from ‘Right of use Assets’ amounting to $318.75 million (2019: nil).

This increase was tempered by an 80 per cent decrease in ‘Cash and bank balance’ to $11.83 million (2019: $59.61 million).