Amalgamated Holdings Limited

Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited
Public company
Traded as ASX: EVT
Industry Entertainment, hospitality.
Founded Listed in 1962 on the Australian Securities Exchange. Subsidiaries date to 1910.[1]
Headquarters 478 George Street, Sydney
Area served
Australia, Fiji, Germany, New Zealand.
Key people
  • Alan Rydge (Chairman)
  • David Seargeant (Managing Director)
Brands
  • Art Series Hotels
  • Atura Hotels
  • Birch, Carroll & Coyle
  • CineStar
  • Edge Digital & Technology
  • Event Cinemas
  • Greater Union
  • Moonlight Cinemas
  • QT Hotels & Resorts
  • Rialto Cinemas
  • Rydges Hotels & Resorts
  • State Theatre Sydney
  • Thredbo Alpine Resort.
Revenue
  • Increase A$ 1,097,138,000 (2014)
  • A$ 1,039,535,000 (2013)
Profit
  • Decrease A$78,563,000 (2014)
  • A$85,792,000 (2013)
Total equity A$920,355,000
Footnotes / references
Annual Report 2014, http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20140919/pdf/42s9t9x8374h28.pdf

Event Hospitality & Entertainment Ltd is an Australian company which operates cinemas, hotels and resorts in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and Germany.[2] It was formerly known as Amalgamated Holdings Limited.

Structure and brands

Event Hospitality & Entertainment is a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded under the code EVT. For much of its recent history it has effectively been controlled by billionaire Alan Rydge, whose family companies reportedly owned 45 per cent of the shares in 2004, and 60 per cent in 2011.[3] [4]

It has four operating divisions:

The company has 49 hotels and resorts around the world, 67 cinemas in Australia, 53 cinemas in Germany, and 17 cinemas in New Zealand and Fiji.[6] The company makes most of its money from its cinema division.[7] It describes Event Cinemas as its flagship.[8] It is the fourth biggest owner of hotels in Australia, operating 9000 rooms across the country. [7]

Most of its hotel and cinema brands are based in Australia but some are in other countries:

Australia

Fiji

Germany

New Zealand

Personnel

The board in 2014 consisted of directors Kenneth Chapman, Peter Coates, Valerie Davies, David Grant, Patria Mann, Richard Newton, Alan Rydge (chairman) and David Seargeant (managing director).[9] Seargeant was recruited in 1988 by Rydge, who wanted him to begin a hotels division.[7] The board has a subcommittee to handle audits and risk management, and another to deal with nominations and remuneration for directorships and senior executive positions.[10]

The company secretaries are David Stone and Gregory Dean, who is also the chief financial officer.[9]

Gender representation for the company as a whole was split 49-51 between women and men in 2014. The split among senior executives was 23-77. On the board it was 25-75.[11]

The company is estimated to have between 5000 and 10,000 employees.[12]

Corporate alliances

Event Hospitality & Entertainment owns and operates some of its cinema chains as a joint venture with Village Roadshow. Their joint entity was established in 2003 under the name Australian Theatres.

Many of its hotels belong to the Global Hotel Alliance.

CEO David Seargeant was among the honorary councillors appointed when the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts was founded in 2011.[13]

History

In 1911, The Christian was released. This was the first film produced by West's Pictures, which later became part of Greater Union.

From 1911 to 1913, a series of mergers results in the formation of The Combine, a powerful alliance between exhibitor Union Theatres and the production and distribution company Australasian Films. The Combine imports many of its films and is blamed by independent competitors for a drop in the local production of films.[14]

In 1932, the box-office hit On Our Selection was produced by Cinesound Productions, a subsidiary which had been set up the previous year by Greater Union Theatres.

In 1936, businessman Norman Rydge was elected chairman and managing director of Greater Union Theatres after buying a controlling interest. The company returns to profitability within three years.[15]

In 1942, Cinesound co-produced Kokoda Front Line!, the first Australian film to win an Academy Award. A full-length version of a wartime newsreel, it won an Oscar for best documentary.[7]

In 1980, Alan Rydge inherited the company on the death of his father, becoming the youngest chairman of an Australian public company.[16]

In 1984, the company is once again fully Australian-owned after gaining control of Rank Organisation's half share.

In 2004, Amalgamated Hospitality Limited suffered a share plunge after writing off more than $70 million on its German cinemas.[17]

In 2005, Greater Union dropped its ban against cinemagoers bringing their own snacks and drinks after an investigation by the New South Wales Commissioner for Fair Trading.[18] [19] The same year, the Rydge family expands its compound on Point Piper by buying a sixth adjoining property.[20]

In 2009, Meredith Hellicar resigned from the company board after being criticised in a judgement by the New South Wales Supreme Court for her part in approving, while chairwoman of James Hardie, a press release which falsely claimed that a trust for asbestosis victims was fully funded.[21][22][23]

In 2010, Amalgamated bought a chain of cinemas in New Zealand and Fiji from Skycity Entertainment Group.[24] The same year, it also acquired outdoor cinema operator Moonlight Cinema for $1.75 million from Prime Media Group.[25]

In 2011, Amalgamated sold its 49 per cent share of a cinema chain in the Middle East.[26] The same year, its operations in Queensland suffered losses due to floods.[27]

In 2013, the Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney was sold to Moss Capital for an estimated A$15 million. Amalgamated had owned the park since 1996.[28]

In 2014, a three-year plan was unveiled to build or redevelop 14 new cinemas.[29]

In December 2015, the company changed its name to Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited. Its ticker code changed from AHD to EVT on the Australian Securities Exchange. [30]

References

  1. "About Us - Overview". Amalgamated Holdings Limited. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  2. "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). ASX.
  3. Shoebridge, Neil (14 November 2011). "Amalgamated notes uncertain picture". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  4. "Amalgamated's German movie flop". Crikey. 20 May 2004. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  5. "Amalgamated Holdings Limited (AHD)". InvestSMART.
  6. "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). ASX. pp. 19–20.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Schlesinger, Larry (2 October 2014). "Why Amalgamated believes in diversity". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  8. "About Us - Our History". Amalgamated Holdings Limited. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Amalgamated Holdings Limited - Details". ASX. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  10. "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). ASX. pp. 4–5.
  11. "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). ASX. p. 9.
  12. "Amalgamated Holdings Limited". LinkedIn. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  13. "Rush president of new academy, AACTA". mUmBRELLA. 18 August 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  14. "Film "Combine.": Australian's Complaint". The Register. Adelaide. 17 June 1927. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  15. Perkins, John (2002). "Rydge, Sir Norman Bede (1900–1980)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  16. "#1476 [on list of world's billionaires] Alan Rydge". Forbes: The World's Billionaires. 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  17. "Amalgamated hurt by German subsidiary". The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 May 2004. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  18. "Cinema Chain Scraps Snack Ban". FindLaw Australia. 22 June 2005. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  19. "Cinema chain pulls food ban". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 23 June 2005. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  20. Chancellor, Jonathan (19 February 2005). "Family spreads wings in Point Piper with $8.7m". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  21. "Ex-James Hardie chairwoman resigns". The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 April 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  22. Schwab, Adam (13 August 2009). "Meredith Hellicar could be forced to pay up". Crikey. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  23. John, Danny (25 April 2009). "Hardie judgement prompts Hellicar to retreat". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  24. Hoey, Trevor (24 November 2009). "Amalgamated Holdings to acquire Skycity cinemas". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  25. "Amalgamated acquires Moonlight Cinema". The Sydney Morning Herald. 28 July 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  26. Schlesinger, Larry (20 August 2015). "Amalgamated shares soars on special 'snow' dividend". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  27. Thomson, James (13 January 2011). "Companies assess flood costs amid concerns rebuilding could take two years". Smart Company. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  28. Chancellor, Jonathan (25 June 2013). "Moss Capital buys Doonside, Sydney wildlife attraction Featherdale Wildlife Park". Property Observer. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  29. Smith, Matthew (30 Oct 2014). "Netflix can't kill the cinema, says Amalgamated". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  30. "ASX Code and Company Name Changes 2015". ASX. Retrieved 22 October 2016.

See also

Cinema of Australia - History

External links

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