Multiplex Giants PVR and INOX Announce Merger

Synopsis – Talking about the existing screens they will still continue as the same brand name PVR and INOX. With a network of more than 1500 screens, this merger will be the biggest till now. It is also being said that in the combined entity the INOX promoters will own around 16.66% stake, whereas PVR founders will be owing 10.62%

India’s two biggest multiplex chains PVR and INOX announced a surprise merger on Sunday. Board members of both the multiplex chains had a meeting in which the director of both the theaters approved an all-stock merger for INOX with PVR. It has also been decided that after the merger the name of the combined company will be named PVR INOX Limited and the new theater which will be open in the future will be branded as PVR INOX. 

Talking about the existing screens they will still continue as the same brand name PVR and INOX. With a network of more than 1500 screens, this merger will be the biggest till now. It is also being said that in the combined entity the INOX promoters will own around 16.66% stake, whereas PVR founders will be owing 10.62%. In addition to this, the managing director of PVR Ajay Bijli will be serving as the managing director of the merger entity, while his brother Sanjeev Bijli will become the executive director. 

Furthermore, the chairman of INOX Pavan Kumar Jain will be appointed as non-executive chairman, whereas Siddharth Jain, INOX director will be appointed as a non-executive non-independent director in the combined entity. The board in total will function with 10 directors at a time and both the families will have equal representation even after the merger. 

Talking about the merger, Ajay Bijli the managing director of the merged entity said, 

“We will become an entity with a much stronger balance sheet. There is a lot to be done, and India is still an under-screened country.” He also added, “creating scales to achieve efficiencies is critical for the long-term survival of the business and fight OTT platforms.”

Also, this merger will also help increase the business after the pandemic hit the film industry along with the closure of theaters that came after that. Besides this, the increase in the OTT platforms has also led to the downfall of people visiting movie theaters. In line with this, fewer sales of tickets led to a cash crunch, which made it tough for the cinema chains to invest in the new properties, thus causing the downfall of the new screens. But this sudden merger of PVR and INOX may lead to the evolution of screens and will also help in increasing the number of movie theaters. 

Once in an interview when Ajay Bijli was asked about the situation of the pandemic and its effects on the theaters, he said, 

“There is no question that the (film exhibition) industry did get impacted by the pandemic, being one of the few businesses around the world that were down to zero revenues. However, we believe in the long-term story of the theatrical business, and mergers have always been on the table because this industry is about consolidation and scale.”

This merger among the two biggest multiplexes will be the way to compensate for all the losses, which the industry had to face in the last two years of the pandemic. Although people have been habitual of watching movies at home, the invention of big screens can motivate them to come back to the theaters again.