BookMyShow parent losses widen in FY 2020

Mumbai-headquartered Big Tree Entertainment, which owns and operates entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow, saw net sales fall by 8.73% to Rs 517.6 crore for the financial year 2019-20, on a standalone basis, compared to the previous financial year. 

The company reported EBITDA of Rs 35.05 crore, down 27.1% YoY. Losses after tax widened 62.2% to Rs 134.7 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2020.

Income from live events fell by nearly 82% to Rs 16.75 crore from Rs 92.74 crore in the previous fiscal. The share of ticketing revenue fell by 38.5%, to Rs 24.78 crore, according to regulatory filings. 

The financials for the period capture the first phase of Covid-19 related national lockdown as cinema halls remained shut from mid-March of 2020 in some cities. India saw a complete shutdown from last week of March 2020 to October 2020. 

“The eventual outcome of impact of Covid-19 on the company's financial statements may be different from those estimated as at the date of approval of these financial statements depending on how long the pandemic lasts and time period taken for the economic activities to return to normalcy,” according to the company. 

While the government allowed cinema halls to operate at full capacity earlier this year, footfalls are yet to return to pre-Covid levels. Earlier this month, BookMyShow announced the launch of its Transaction-Video-on-Demand (TVOD) service, BookMyShow Stream.

Big Tree Entertainment was founded in 1999 by Ashish Hemrajani, Rajesh Balpande and Parikshit Dhar. The company launched BookMyShow in 2007 which last raised $100 million in a Series D round from TPG Growth in 2018.