Trading Update

RNS Number : 0752C

Cineworld Group plc

14 January 2015

 

CINEWORLD GROUP PLC
Trading Update

Cineworld Group plc ("Cineworld" or "the Group") is pleased to provide the following trading update at the commencement of the close period prior to the announcement of its preliminary results for the 53 weeks ended 1 January 2015 which is due to be made on 12 March 2015.

Unless explicitly referenced, all figures in the table and commentary below are on a pro forma 52 weeks for 2014 vs. 2013¹ basis.

	UK & Ireland (52 weeks v 52 weeks) %		CEE & Israel2 (52 weeks v 52 weeks) %		Group pro forma3 (52 weeks v 52 weeks) %		Group pro forma (53 weeks v 52 weeks) %
Total Revenues	+ 1.8		+ 1.5		+ 1.7		+ 5.2
Box Office	+ 0.1		+ 2.0		+ 0.8		+ 4.0
Retail	+ 2.3		+ 4.8		+ 3.2		+ 6.6
Other Income	+ 14.8		- 3.5		+ 3.8		+8.8

¹ % change vs. prior year for CEE & Israel presented on a constant currency basis. 
² CEE is defined as Central and Eastern Europe and includes Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
³ Where relevant, pro forma basis reflects the year on year performance of Cinema City which became part of the Cineworld Group on 28 February 2014.

We anticipate that Group profitability for the year ended 1 January 2015 will be towards the top end of market consensus.

The UK & Ireland business continued to outperform the wider market with box office revenues increasing by 0.1%, reflecting a decline in admissions of 3.7% offset by a growth of 4.0% in the average ticket price.  Admissions in CEE & Israel increased by 4.0%. Poland has performed particularly strongly during the year, where the increase in both local film product and the slate of popular family films resulted in admissions growth of 6.8%. 

Overall, the impact of the 53^rd week in 2014 resulted in 3.5% of the revenue growth of the Group.

During the year we opened two new cinemas in the UK (St Neots and Telford with 6 and 11 screens respectively) and two new cinemas in Romania (Ploiesti and Targu Jiu, both with 6 screens). We are currently contracted to open a further 11 cinemas in the UK (84 screens, of which 11 relate to 3 new Picturehouse cinemas) and 10 in CEE & Israel (105 screens) during 2015, of which 18 cinemas (160 screens) are under construction.

There is a strong film release programme for 2015 which includes "Avengers: The Age of Ultron", "Star Wars: Episode VII", "Jurassic World", the final Hunger Games title "Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" and the next Bond film "Spectre". With our plans for continued expansion across the Group, we look forward to delivering further value to shareholders in 2015.

Contacts

For further information:

Cineworld Group plc			Bell Pottinger
Philip Bowcock	020 8987 5000		Elly Williamson	020 3772 2573
			Charlie Harrison	020 3772 2579

Notes to editors

About Cineworld Group plc

Cineworld Group plc was founded in 1995 and listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange in May 2007.

The company has grown organically and by acquisition to become one of the leading cinema Groups in Europe with the number one or number two position by number of screens in each of its regions.  Cineworld currently operates 1,880 screens across 205 sites in the UK and Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Israel.

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