Pinewood Shepperton Reports Robust Revenue Performance

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PinewoodPinewood Shepperton has unveiled its unaudited results for the fifteen-month period ended 31 March 2012.

Key headlines include £63m in revenues, an operating profit of £13.2m and a loss before tax after exceptional items of £1.9m. In terms of business development, the main news during the period was the opening of the 30,000 sq ft Richard Attenborough stage on time and on budget.

Commenting on the results, Ivan Dunleavy, Chief Executive, said: "Once again, the Company has delivered a strong set of results with revenues substantially up.  Our strategy, at home and abroad, is delivering strong growth.  Despite increasing global competition, the Company won significant business from big budget films for our facilities which resulted in the Studios achieving high utilisation.  In television, the trend for large audience TV shows continues. The Media Park, home to around media businesses, remains attractive to makers and producers of film, television, video games and the wider digital screen industries.”

Pinewood Shepperton calls itself Europe's largest provider of stage and studio space, with sites at Pinewood, Shepperton and Teddington accommodating a total of 34 stages, 5 dedicated digital television studios and 5 digital presentation studios between them.

Aside from the new £5.6m stage, it says “a range of infrastructure projects have been completed or are under way to meet the ever increasing demands of its global customer base.  These investments have included a £3.3m capital project for an electricity supply upgrade, and a £0.5m new workshop facility.  In addition, the Company has announced an investment programme to expand its digital offering and HD television facilities.”

Internationally, expansion into Canada, the Dominican Republic, Germany and Malaysia give the Company access to regions of the world where content production is expected to grow. “The innovative water tank facility at Pinewood Indomina Studios in the Dominican Republic is expected to become operational during September 2012 and phase one of the Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios is expected to open during May 2013.”

In terms of its operational divisions, film revenues for the fifteen month period were £44.9m.  The largest film production at Pinewood during the period was Dark Shadows (Warner Bros) and the largest production at Shepperton was Wrath of the Titans (Warner Bros).

Television revenues in the same period were £10.1m. Commenting on the figure, Pinewood Shepperton said: “Following a sustained period where the UK television market contracted, the market is now seeing growth in some genres. The Company is consolidating its television offering at Pinewood and is investing in its TV business to increase its ability to provide a comprehensive range of production facilities to the TV community including HD studios, film stages and post production services.”

In other areas, Media Park (including the Company's 50% interest in the Shepperton Studios Property Partnership) revenues for the fifteen month period were £8.0m. The total number of Media Park companies accommodated during the fifteen month period was stable at 276 while occupancy for the fifteen month period increased to 92%.  The Company continued to rationalise and refurbish its stock of buildings available for both Media Park occupiers and productions.