Village Roadshow confident of return to dividends

VILLAGE Roadshow says it is still experiencing low visitor numbers a year after the fatal accident at rival theme park Dreamworld, but expects to start paying dividends again this financial year.

The company, at its annual general meeting yesterday, said Gold Coast theme park attendance to October 31 was 5.4 per cent behind the prior cor- responding period, which was largely before four people were killed when a Dreamworld ride malfunctioned.

But it expects to see a pickup in attendance during the Christmas and summer holidays and forecasts its theme parks division will deliver a “substantial improvement” in 2018 full- year earnings, compared to the previous year.

So far in the 2018 financial year, Village Roadshow’s cin- ema exhibition division’s performance has been well below the same period last year, due to a decline in the number of people going to the cinema and an underperformance in a number of films.

The theme parks and cinemas operator expects the second half of FY2018 to be better, with a stronger selection of films, including Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Greatest Showman, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Deadpool 2, scheduled to come out. But, it said, its film distribution division this year is not expected to perform as well as last year.

Chairman Robert Kirby said 2017 had been the toughest trading year on record for Village Roadshow following the impact of the Dreamworld fatal accident and worldwide box office angst.

“However, we remain confident the tide is turning and our divisions are poised to return to their previous profitability,” Mr Kirby said. He said the recent $ 165 million sale of the Singapore cinema business, along with the sale and longterm leaseback of the Oxenford land, would help correct the company’s balance sheet.

Given this, Mr Kirby said, the board was “confident of being able to recommend a return to dividends before the end of FY18”.