Pinewood posts strong year

Pinewood Shepperton’s audited results for the year ended 31 March 2014 reveal a surge in revenue and pre-tax profit off the back of busy film and TV bookings and healthy media engagements at the studios.

Revenue increased to £64.1m from £55m in the equivalent period last year, operating profit grew to £4.9m from £3.8m and pre-tax profit rose to £3.6m from £1.32m in 2013.

Net debt rose from £33.1m to £40.2m and the company has declared a final dividend of 1.9p per share compared with 1.5p in 2013.

Highlights of the year included the completion of Pinewood’s 45,000 sq ft Q Stage, Camelot entering the TV3 stage from September 2013, appointment by the Welsh government to advise, promote and market its new £30m Media Development Budget and construction commencing on Pinewood Atlanta Studios.

Crucially, on 19 June 2014 the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government granted planning permission for Pinewood’s £200m expansion.

Film revenues for the year ended 31 March 2014 were £37.4m, an increase year on year of 6.3%. 

During the year the Isle of Man Media Development Fund, advised by Pinewood, invested a total of £11.3m (year ended 31 March 2013: £1.5m) in Robot Overlords (Pinewood Pictures/Pinewood Productions/Tempo Productions), Pressure (Newscope Films/Pinewood Pictures/Pinewood Productions) and Spooks: The Greater Good (Pinewood Pictures/Pinewood Productions/BBC/Shine).

Pinewood provided film finance totalling £1.9m to its wholly owned subsidiary film production companies for the production of Robot Overlords, The Riot Club (Pinewood Productions/Blueprint Pictures), Pressure, Kill Your Friends (Pinewood Productions/Icon/Altitude/Worlds End Television) and Spooks: The Greater Good (year ended 31 March 2013: £0.9m).

During the year the company recouped £0.3m against film investments made to date and earned distribution commissions of £0.2m.

Commenting on today’s results, Ivan Dunleavy, Chief Executive, said: “During the year, the company had a strong performance with significant revenue increases in every area of the business.  This has resulted in total revenues going up by 16.5%.”

“The company has made an excellent start to the new financial year, enjoying good visibility for the year as a whole,” he continued. “Demand for the Studios’ UK facilities is at an unprecedented level.  We welcome the decision on 19 June 2014 by the Communities Secretary to grant permission for the Pinewood Studios Development Framework as recommended by the Planning Inspectorate.  We will proceed quickly with the preparations for construction of this much needed additional capacity.”