HDIL sells multiplex business to Carnival Films
1 min read 03 Jul 2014, 12:57 PM ISTHDIL inks agreement to sell HDIL Entertainment to Carnival Films for an undisclosed amount
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Mumbai: Real estate developer Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) said it has agreed to sell its multiplex business unit, HDIL Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, to Carnival Films Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
“As per the agreement, the company will divest its 100% shareholding in the subsidiary company thereby handing over the operations of its chain of multiplex business across India," HDIL said in a filing to BSE on Thursday.
On 30 June, Mint reported that Kerala-based Carnival Cinemas, a brand of movie theatres run by Global Business Conexxtions Pvt Ltd, is in talks with HDIL to buy out its cinema exhibition business, citing unidentified people. Carnival Films is a subsidiary of Global Business Conexxtions.
HDIL Entertainment, a fully owned subsidiary of HDIL, launched a chain of multiplexes under the brand name Broadway. According to its website, HDIL Entertainment has 13 screens and has plans to set up around 150 screens in major cities.
Carnival Cinemas has a presence in four cities in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Multiplexes account for approximately 25% of the total number of screens in India, where there are just eight screens per million people, according to a March 2014 report by consulting firm KPMG. That compares with 117 per million people in the US. “Given the low screen penetration, India has the potential to significantly increase the number of existing multiplex screens in the country over the next decade without causing an oversupply of screens," KPMG had said.
