The Rs 1,500-crore movie multiplex market is in for a 70mm dishum-dishum with large financial services and real estate companies like Indiabulls and Reliance Retail joining the fray.
According to industry sources, Indiabulls is planning to set up over 40 multiplexes across the country in the next year-and-a-half, while Reliance Retail has plans for 100 multiplexes over the next few years. The sources said several international players from other developing countries like Mexico and even mature markets are likely to make announcements next year about plans.
The Indiabulls foray into multiplexes forms part of its plans to venture into organised retail. Indiabulls has a market cap of about Rs 13,320 crore, according to NSE data. The company is investing Rs 1,500 crore to build 30 hypermarkets. Meanwhile, Reliance Retail plans to build multiplexes in its hypermarkets, the first of which has already come up in Ahmedabad.
Unlike real estate major DLF, which also plans to build around 100 multiplexes under its DT Cinemas brand in its own malls, Indiabulls will venture beyond its own properties and will open multiplexes on leased properties as well. DLF?s market cap is about Rs 1 trillion.
Adlabs, PVR Cinemas, Inox Leisure, Shringar Cinemas, Cinemax and Fun Republic currently dominate the multiplex segment.
?At present, there are 300 multiplexes in the country and given the peculiarities of the film industry coupled with the huge demand, rising incomes and consumption pattern of the middle-class, this industry is growing stupendously,? says Rajesh Jain, a media analyst with KPMG.
Experts say that going forward, new technology will bring down the cost component of film prints significantly with multimedia telescoping the time to see cash flows. This would ensure that firms with more theatres would garner higher revenues as well.
According to analysts, the most important factor for the corporate biggies? ventures in the mutiplex business is the real estate component.