Major entertainment, hospitality and leisure operator Event Hospitality and Entertainment Limited (EVT) has announced net profit after income tax for the half year to 31 December 2015 of AUD$76.8 million, representing an increase over the prior comparable half year period of $25.6 million or 49.9%.
Normalised profit before interest and income tax grew by $33.6 million or 44.2% to $109.7 million.
In announcing the result, EVT Group Managing Director, David Seargeant, said: “An exceptional result driven in large part by our cinema exhibition circuits and the very strong film line up lead by Star Wars: The Force Awakens and supported by the Bond film Spectre, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 and The Martian” adding “the result in Germany was further boosted by the locally produced films Fack ju Göhte 2 and Er Ist Wieder Da”.
Normalised Entertainment segment profit before interest and tax reflected growth of 74.8% over the prior year.
The hotels and resorts business also made a strong contribution to earnings and this was particularly the case with the Group’s new QT and Atura branded hotels.
Across the Group’s owned Hotels, Occupancy increased by 2.9 percentage points with the Average Room Rate up by 4.1% to AUD$167. Also pleasing was the result out of Thredbo with good conditions for snowmaking and consistent cold night time temperatures enabling top to bottom skiing for the entire season.
EVT Chairman, Alan Rydge, announced a fully franked interim dividend of 20 cents per share an increase of 4 cents or 25% on the previous comparable half-year period.
