PANTAFLIX AG made significant progress in the first half of 2018 and is growing in all areas. In the first half of 2018, revenues of the PANTAFLIX Group rose by 18.7% to EUR 13.8 million (previous year: EUR 11.7 million). The positive development in the first half of 2018 was based on the strong momentum in the production business with PANTAFLIX cooperation partners such as Amazon Prime and Warner Bros. The customer growth of the video-on-demand (VoD) platform PANTAFLIX continues to develop dynamically.
PANTAFLIX video-on-demand business in full growth: 400,000 users, 23,000 contents from all over the world and available in 68 countries
In the digital segment, the PANTAFLIX AG subsidiary PANTAFLIX Technologies GmbH recorded strong user growth to 400,000 for its VoD platform in the first half of the year, which is attributable to key success factors: successful marketing measures and comprehensive content deals with one of the largest major Hollywood studios, Warner Bros., with the global film production company STUDIOCANAL, with Premiere Digital Services and with Red Arrow Studios International GmbH. At the end of the first half of the year, PANTAFLIX's range of films and series had grown to around 23,000 contents, supplied by over 500 content partners from 44 countries. In addition, the content can be accessed globally in 68 countries with the rollout in South and Central America and recently in seven languages with Spanish. With the launch of PANTAFLIX apps on Apple TV, Android TV and as a pre-installed TV app on Samsung's smart TVs, the technical reach of PANTAFLIX on a global level has increased considerably, enabling millions of expats to access films and series from their home countries.
Strong production business: three parallel film productions, two forthcoming starts and a well-filled pipeline
For the production business of the PANTAFLIX AG subsidiary PANTALEON Films GmbH, the first half of 2018 began successfully with the premieres of the feature films "Hot Dog" in January 2018 and "Vielmachglas" in March 2018 as well as a Hollywood premiere of the second season of "You are Wanted". The shooting of the co-production "100 Dinge" (Florian David Fitz, Matthias Schweighöfer) with the long-standing partner Warner Bros. Entertainment was recently successfully completed and the cinema release will take place in December 2018. Furthermore, PANTALEON Films GmbH is shooting three feature films ("Am Ende Legenden" (AT), "Dem Horizont so nah" and "Resistance") in parallel for the first time. "Resistance" is PANTAFLIX AG's largest and first international film production with a Hollywood cast. With the Amazon Prime video series "You Are Wanted", PANTAFLIX has a particularly successful German series production in its portfolio. Amazon Prime Video will also be releasing the series "Beat" in November, which was produced by Die Hellinger/Doll Filmproduktion GmbH together with Warner Bros. and PANTALEON Films GmbH. In addition, PANTALEON Films GmbH has a well-filled pipeline with many film and series projects.
Significant increase in revenues and stable financial position
The outstanding production business and the strong growth of the digital business segment caused the PANTAFLIX Group's revenues to increase by 18.7% to EUR 13.8 million in the first half of 2018 (previous year: EUR 11.7 million). After changes in inventories of film and series productions currently in production and completed, total output amounted to EUR -6.3 million (previous year: EUR 0.2 million) and other operating income to EUR 0.5 million (previous year: EUR 1.4 million), totalling EUR 8.1 million (previous year: EUR 13.3 million). It should be noted here that due to the project-related nature of the business, revenues of current productions will only have an effect on revenues in the further course of the financial year. In the course of the significantly higher production activities, the cost of materials also increased to around EUR 5.0 million (previous year: EUR 1.5 million) and costs to EUR 2.8 million (previous year: EUR 1.7 million) as part of the strategic personnel expansion. Other operating expenses also rose to EUR 3.4 million (previous year: EUR 1.6 million) as a result of increased activities in the area of VoD and marketing. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached EUR -3.1 million in the reporting period, compared with EUR 8.5 million in the first half of 2017, reflecting investments in the well-filled production pipeline and the expansion of the PANTAFLIX VoD platform. Depreciation - mainly on internally generated intangible assets - amounted to EUR 1.2 million in the first half of the year under review (previous year: EUR 10.2 million) and was largely determined by the performance-related amortization of capitalized production costs for film projects. The bottom line for PANTAFLIX AG in the first half of 2018 was a consolidated half-year loss of EUR 4.2 million (previous year: EUR 1.7 million).
The PANTAFLIX Group has a stable financial position. As of 30 June 2018, cash and cash equivalents of EUR 17.9 million were reported in the balance sheet (31 December 2017: EUR 17.1 million). At the end of the first half of 2018, the equity ratio of 57.7% was slightly above the level as of 31 December 2017 (56.7%).
"Our VoD platform PANTAFLIX is a game changer. With our rapidly growing range of films and series, our expansion into 68 countries and seven languages as well as our strong technical reach combined with extensive investments in marketing measures, we are well on the way to becoming the best away from home platform and to making our favourite content from home available to around 258 million expats. To this end, we are currently producing three major feature films in parallel, celebrating a film and series launch in 2018 and are pleased to have a full project pipeline. The basis for further growth of PANTAFLIX AG on the way to becoming a fully integrated media group has been created," says Stefan Langefeld, CEO of PANTAFLIX AG.