Cinepolis plans to double its screen presence in India

The firm wants to achieve target by 2017

Mexican multiplex chain Cinepolis plans to more than double its screen presence across India by 2017 to take on the big players in the market.

“We currently have 183 screens spread across the length and breadth of India. Our target is to increase the screen presence to 400 screens by 2017,” Cinepolis managing director Javier Sotomayor de Zavaleta told Deccan Herald on the sidelines of FICCI FRAMES.

He, however, did not specify the investments that the company would be making for expanding due to it being a privately-held company. Cinepolis, which had acquired Fun Cinemas in India to expand is presence, is looking to merge both the companies and is in the process of rebranding some of the properties as well.

“The acquisition of Fun Cinemas made lot of sense for us. We are in the process of merging the companies. In some properties, the branding will remain the same while in some, we are looking at remodelling it, Zavaleta said, adding that 60-70 per cent of the screens of Fun Cinemas would be rebranded as Cinepolis by the end of the year,” he said.

According to Zavaleta, the company is open to further acquisitions in the Indian exhibition space to expand its presence as well.

“We are evaluating different inorganic opportunities currently, whatever is available to us currently. Whenever and wherever we believe it makes sense for us to grow inorganically, we will look at it,” Cinepolis managing director said.

“We did look at other opportunities earlier including Big Cinemas. However, strategically speaking, out of the ones that were there available in the market, Fun Cinemas was the only one that made sense to us, Zavaleta added.

The exhibition space has seen hectic merger and acquisition activity recently. BIG Cinemas, owned by the Reliance ADA Group, was acquired by Carnival Films for $111 million and while HDIL Entertainment was snapped up by Carnival Films for $18 million.