Cineworld hikes dividend as full year profit jumps

For the year to the end of December, pre-tax profit rose 48.1% to £99.7m as revenue increased to £705.8m from £619.4m. Adjusted pre-tax profit was up 37.1% to £102.8m.

The group said the strong performance was driven by improved efficiencies throughout the business and the cost savings achieved following the successful integration of Cineworld and Cinema City.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation came in at £155.3m from £126.6m and the company said it will pay a final dividend of 12.5p per share, taking its full year dividend up 29.6% to 17.5p.

During the year, Cineworld opened a record 18 new cinemas, bringing the total number of screens to 2,011.

Chief executive Mooky Greidinger: “We are pleased to announce 2015 was another record year for the Cineworld Group and its shareholders. Revenues continued to grow as more than 93 million customers came through our doors and enjoyed the movies we showed.”

Peel Hunt said the results were strong, reflecting the quality of the 2015 box office and the synergies derived from the Cinema City combination.

The brokerage said adjusted EBITDA was ahead of its estimate of £152.2m but broadly in line with consensus. It said the real beat was at the pre-tax profit level, with adjusted profit of £102.8m ahead of Peel’s forecast of £95m and consensus of £96.2m.

Also on Thursday, Cineworld said it has appointed Dean Moore as interim chief financial officer for around 12 months.

More was group finance director of N Brown for 11 years from 2004, before which he was group finance director of T & S Stores until it was acquired by Tesco in early 2003.

Nisan Cohen, the current VP of finance, has been appointed deputy chief financial officer.

At 0848 GMT, Cineworld shares were up 0.2% to 481.20p.