Diversified consumer services firm SRS Ltd, which has exposure to hospitality, entertainment and retail businesses, has decided to demerge its cinema exhibition and retail division under two wholly owned subsidiaries-SRS Cinemas and Entertainment Ltd as well as SRS Modern Retail Ltd, respectively, the company informed the BSE. These firms will be listed separately on the stock exchange, the firm said on Monday.
The demerger may open up possibilities for separate
fundraising for the two businesses. It will leave the present public listed firm with gems & jewellery besides food & beverage business.
Cinema exhibition, through which the firm operates a multiplex chain under its own brand SRS Cinemas, as well as the retail chain together generated revenues of Rs 440 crore or a fifth of its total revenue of Rs 2,267 crore in the year ended March 31, 2012. The movie exhibition unit clocked revenues of around Rs 53 crore while retail business saw pressure in revenues which shrank to Rs 387 crore in FY12.
A break-up of the revenues by units is not available for FY13. The company derives the bulk of its revenues from the gems & jewellery segment.
It operates the movie exhibition business under the SRS Cinemas brand which runs 14 multiplexes with 39 screens and 9,948 seats across nine cities. The bulk of these are in tier II and tier III cities. It runs its retail operations under SRS Value Bazaar brand and has close to two dozen outlets, almost all of which are run by the firm itself.
SRS Ltd is a part of the SRS Group which has presence across sectors such as jewellery, cinemas, retail, hospitality as well as real estate, healthcare and financial services. Besides, SRS Group has another listed firm SRS Real Infrastructure Ltd.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)