PVR likely to buy Sathyam Cinemas for Rs 750-1,000 cr, say reports

Shares of cinema giant PVR touched a new 52-week high after rallying over 5 percent on reports that the group will acquire Chennai’s premier movie exhibition company SPI Cinemas, popularly known as Sathyam Cinemas [caption id=“attachment_1351325” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PVR[/caption] “The Ajay Bijli led PVR group seems set to acquire Chennai’s premier movie exhibition company SPI Cinemas, popularly known as Sathyam Cinemas. The deal may close for a rather steep valuation of approximately Rs 750-1,000 crore for just 40 odd screens, located predominantly in the Southern metro,” moneycontrol.com said quoting a media report. The deal valuation seems a bit steep for the 40-screen company after Carnival Cinema bought Anil Ambani’s 242 screen-BIG Cinema for around Rs 700 crore. According to the SPI Cinemas’ website, it currently operates in Chennai and Coimbatore under 5 categories – Sathyam, Escape, thecinema, Luxe and S2 Cinemas. According to The Economic Times,   the single-state movie exhibition company had a revenue of Rs 1,894 crore and EBITDA of  Rs 39 crore in FY14. PVR is the largest cinema exhibitor in India with 454 screens in 43 cities.