Biznextindia : The Board of Directors of PVR Limited (PVR) and the Board of Directors of INOX Leisure Limited (INOX) have approved an all stock amalgamation of INOX with PVR. Upon obtaining all regulatory and shareholders’ approvals, when the merger becomes effective, INOX will merge with PVR. Shareholders of INOX will receive shares of PVR in exchange of shares in INOX at the approved share exchange (swap) ratio.
Post the merger, the promoters of INOX will become co-promoters in the merged entity along with the existing promoters of PVR. Upon effectiveness of the scheme, the Board of Directors of the merged company would be re-constituted with total board strength of 10 members and both the promoter families having equal representation on the Board with 2 board seats each. Ajay Bijli would be appointed as the Managing Director and Sanjeev Kumar would be appointed as the Executive Director. Pavan Kumar Jain would be appointed as the Non- Executive Chairman of the Board. Siddharth Jain would be appointed as Non-Executive Non-Independent Director in the combined entity.
The combined entity will be named as PVR INOX Limited with branding of existing screens to continue as PVR and INOX respectively. New cinemas opened post the merger will be branded as PVR INOX.
Strategic rationale and benefits With PVR currently operating 871 screens across 181 properties in 73 cities and INOX operating 675 screens across 160 properties in 72 cities, the combined entity will become the largest film exhibition company in India operating 1546 screens across 341 properties across 109 cities.
“This is a momentous occasion that brings together two companies with significantly complementary strengths. The partnership of these two brands will put consumer at the center of its vision and deliver an unparalleled movie going experience to them. The film exhibition sector has been one of the worst impacted sectors on account of the pandemic and creating scale to achieve efficiencies is critical for the long term survival of the business and fight the onslaught of digital OTT platforms “Ajay Bijli, Chairman and Managing Director of PVR said.