Carnival Cinemas is eyeing the remote areas of Saudi Arabia to open up 500 screens spanning in the next five years.

There’s ample good news for movie lovers in the Kingdom. Two more cinema chains have recently announcing their plans to open approximately 500 screens in even remote areas of Saudi Arabia, thus making the movie future brighter, especially for those who aim for digging gold from the nation’s profitable box-office market.

PV Sunil, who is the Managing Director of Carnival Cinemas, which is one of the fastest-growing and biggest multiplex chains in India said that Saudi is a huge country. Because of that, there is an opportunity for all the players who want to operate here and also co-exist harmoniously. Though there is going to be a lot of competition in this market from the global operators who are all set to do business in this exciting cinema market.

During the inaugural MENA Cinema Forum, which took place in Dubai recently, Sunil shared that Carnival Cinemas is going to soon open about 500 screens across the country spread in the next five years, especially with a focus on the remote areas.

He also confirmed that they are in a position to obtain the operational license, and they already have the required distribution license. However, as soon as they get the operational license, they plan to start the opening of the multiplexes in the Kingdom.

Then there is Novo Cinemas, which already has 11 screens in the UAE and also one in Bahrain; it has also announced that it is considering starting its business in Saudi Arabia. The coming times would see partnership deals happening with both, which have resulted in four licenses already being awarded to big cinema operators since Saudi Arabia officially ended a 35-year ban on cinemas beginning this year. As of now, there are some theaters in Riyadh, although VOX is planning to open a few in Jeddah by 2018 end.

Debbie Stanford-Kristiansen, who is the CEO of Novo Cinemas, which is headquartered in Dubai, shared that the company plans to open its first cinema screens in Saudi Arabia in 2019 end or last quarter. She feels that Saudi is an important market, and Novo Cinemas, which started in the year 2000, is a leader in this business in this region and it is only apt for the company to now step into KSA.

As per the latest research conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the total number of cinema screens is going to shoot up by 38.4% to 1,800 in the MENA region in the coming three to five years. More than $3.54 billion worth of investments in cinema screens across the Kingdom is forecasted to boost this industry’s expansion plans.

Ashish Shukla, who is the CEO of Cinepolis Gulf, shared the expansion plans on the occasion of the MENA Cinema Forum. Earlier in 2018, Saudi Arabia approved its fourth operational license for adding new screens to Lux Entertainment, which is a joint venture between Cinepolis, the largest cineplex chain in Mexico, Al-Tayer Group and Al-Hokair Group for Tourism and Development. Lux Entertainment has plans to open new 300 cinema screens in around 15 cities in Saudi Arabia in the coming five years.

Some more licenses have been given to AMC Theaters, which is an American chain owned by the Wanda Group. They plan to open 40 new cinemas in 15 cities in the Kingdom over the coming five years, and anywhere between 50 to 100 screens in around 25 cities by the year 2030. VOX Cinemas, which is one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest movie chains, is planning to open 600 new screens by the year 2022, whereas the Al-Rashed United Group – Empire Cinema is also planning to start 30 new cinemas in the nation in over the coming three years.

Cinepolis, which is one of the largest global cinema operators, currently has 5,371 screens and around 1.1 million cinema seats in almost 15 nations. Ashish Shukla was of the view that the Gulf is one of the biggest growth opportunities for the company as the Kingdom is on top when it comes to the investment potential.

Cameron Mitchell, who is the CEO of Majid Al-Futtaim Cinemas, whose subsidiary is VOX Cinemas, said that the Kingdom will soon experience many exciting developments and additions in the film industry, such as the enhancement of locally-produced content and films, and also international Hollywood filmmakers using the Gulf as a destination for filming.

He also mentioned his excitement about their Riyadh Front location, The Roof, and also the opening of the Mall of Saudi, which will soon be the best cinema in the world.

Mitchell shared that his company aims to make sure that its thriving business in the country is led by Saudi nationals, with the business having a 98.8% Saudization scheme, having achieved 98% till date. He also said that the company will be supporting local filmmakers because VOX is “desperate for more local content.”

Earlier in 2018, VOX had signed a much-talked-about distribution deal with Myrkott, which is the Saudi production company involved in YouTube animated series “Masameer” which has as of now attracted over 700 million views across social media.

Mohamed Al-Hashemi, who is the country manager for Saudi Arabia at Majid Al-Futtaim, said that the Kingdom’s market is special because of a couple of reasons; first, because of its population and the purchasing power and second, because it is a virgin market.

UAE has already attracted Hollywood movie makers to shoot some of the blockbusters such as “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and “Fast & Furious 7,” Al-Hashemi is positive that now movie producers would consider the Kingdom for its shoot locations.

Arturo Guillén, who is the vice present for EMEA and India for movies at comScore (an analytical organization that analyzes cinema trends), said that Saudi is currently becoming the centre of attention of all the global cinema population. The main reason for this is the huge potential of this market to reach the Top 10 market slot globally in the coming five years. This means global box-office earnings of around $1 billion per year. Seeing these numbers, Saudi can definitely be a competition to Hollywood soon.

Situated on Oman’s northern coast, Sohar is a beautiful city reminiscent of a colorful past. This ancient city is steeped in history and is the largest in the northern areas of the nation. Having the fifth highest population in Oman, this town has always acted as a port for the country because of its strategic location. It also serves as a gateway between the east and west and currently, it is home to a deep sea port, allowing it to accommodate some of the largest ships, and thus becoming one of the rapidly growing free zones in the whole world.

Sohar free trade zone is one of the four operational free zones in Oman. Located in the Sultanate of Oman, situated 220 km away from Muscat – its capital, Sohar free Port and the free zone is mainly operating into areas such as Trade and Logistics, Steel Manufacturing and Processing, Petrochemicals, Oil and Gas, Minerals, Aggregate Industry, Ceramics, and Food logistics and processing. Oman’s Sohar free zone also has a one-stop-shop which acts as a window for all the customers to get whatever they need to establish and run their business seamlessly and efficiently.

Benefits of setting up a business or company in Sohar

1. 100% foreign ownership but there should be a minimum of two shareholders;
2. Exemption from the applicable corporate tax for at least 10 years. This period could be extended to up to 25 years or the duration of the lease in case the company meets specific Omanization targets;
3. Availability of a ‘one-stop-shop’, which enables to easily get licenses, approvals or, permits they need for their business from a single place rather than running around to various government bodies;
4. Very low capital requirements and encouragement to business start-ups;
5. Omanization works as following regarding the corporate tax exemptions. The escalation system is as follows:

• The minimum level of Omanization is 15%;
• 25% Omanization after 10 years;
• 35% Omanization after 15 years; and
• 50% Omanization after 20 years and this is up till the final potential tax-free year (year 25);

The port was established in 2002, whereas the free zone came up in 2010.

Various possibilities in Sohar Port and Free Zone

The free zone is situated in Liwa and is on the coast. The location being close to many significant places, the free zone is within an easy reach of about 3 hours of Muscat. It is very near and well-connected to the UAE and Dubai. In addition, there are direct connections to highway which lead to Saudi Arabia, which is another significant economy in the region.

There are various types of licenses that can be obtained in this free zone. The types available are:

1. Industrial License
2. Light Manufacturing and Assembly License
3. General Trade License
4. Logistics License
5. Service Provider License

These licenses permit doing these business activities and should be renewed annually. Third-party service providers must obtain a Service Provider license, although the services that are permitted to provide are specified. There’s another big advantage that the registration process for these service providers is not charged or is absolutely free of charge.

Also, there are some other permits which can be obtained, and the process is transparent and very simple. The permits are as follows:

1. Plot Work Permit: This permit allows the Working Company to carry out the civil works within their plot. All the pertinent regulations on plot development and the required application process to get the Plot Work permit are in the Development Control Regulations;
2. Common Area Work Permit: This permit allows the Working Company to carry out the works outside of the plot, but inside some of the common areas such as laying a pipeline or cable;
3. Special Transport Permit: All businesses or companies would need an Environmental Permit. Which type of permit that would require depends on the type, scale of the work, and the complexity of the projects they intent to undertake. The permits are as follows:

• No environmental impact– In case there is going to be no environmental impact, there would be no application filling required and approval must be obtained within three working days.
• Limited environmental impact– In this case, the business needs to submit an environmental review form and the approval could take up to 30 days.
• Environmental Impact– In this case, the business should submit environmental impact assessment and the required approval could take up to 90 days.

The level of environmental impact is provided to the business or company during the assessment period so that the entities are prepared to give the needed review or assessment to make sure that the process is smooth and seamless.

The free zone does have its own rules and regulations known as the Sohar Free Zone Rules and Regulations, which are clearly distinguishable from the mainland laws.

Sohar Port and Free Zone is a very well-developed free zone, which is rapidly developing and growing and has large amounts of fixed investments flowing in. With so many advantages of a world-class deep sea port, proximity to various world-renowned business centers like Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the easy to use free zone facilities such as the one stop shop etc, Sohar Port and free zone offer very unique and promising opportunities for various businesses to set up themselves either on a regional or even on a global scale.

If you want to consider this promising prospect, do get in touch with the team of our professionals who will help you with new company formation in Oman or with foreign company registration in Oman.

Data shows that there were investments worth US$1.6 billion in August 2018 across 50 deals, in which the buyout deals recorded a little over a double jump in the value as compared to August last year. Year-to-date, PE/VC investments done till August 2018, has shot up to US$18.7 billion, which is about 9% more when compared to the same month in 2017. August 2018 had US$830 million across 18 exits with over two US$200 million deals. While exits in 2018 (counted between January to August 2018) were at US$6.7 billion, with just the Walmart-Flipkart deal of US$16 billion, exits in this year are predicted to shoot up to two times of the total value of exits recorded in last year.

Investments

In August 2018, the deal value stood at US$1.6 billion, which was at par with the investments that were recorded one month earlier; however, it was almost a 71% decrease as compared to August 2017. The huge difference here is because of the two mega deals in August 2017 – first one of Softbank’s US$2.5 billion investment in Flipkart and the second one of GIC’s US$1.4 billion investment in DLF Cyber City. When we talk of deal volume, the investment activity in August 2018 was almost equal to the deals recorded in August 2017.

In August this year, there were four deals which valued more than US$100 million (and were cumulatively totaling up to US$1.1 billion), and accounted for almost 72% of the entire investments as against US$4.7 billion, which was recorded across six deals around the same time last year, which included a couple of the biggest PE deals (mentioned above) that happened in the Indian Market. The biggest deal in August 2018 was KKR’s buyout of 60% stake worth US$530 million in Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited.

When talking about the investment stages, buyouts topped the charts in terms of investment value, with four deals worth US$683 million, which is over two times the investments received in August last year. Expansion or growth deals, which mostly lead the way when it comes to investment value, totaled up to US$467 million in investments as compared to US$4.5 billion in August 2017. Start-ups were at the top when we talk about the number of deals (29 deals).

Power and utilities were at the top from a sector point-of-view, with US$532 million investments recorded just by two deals. The next in line was real estate which had US$360 million invested in two deals. Financial services recorded about US$42 million of investments with six deals. When talking about the number of deals, Technology was at the top with seven deals.

Exits

In August 2018, 18 exits were recorded with US$830 million, which was twice the value when compared to July 2018. But when compared to August 2017, exits have gone down by about 61% in terms of value, majorly because of some large exits that were recorded in August 2017 such as Tiger Global’s exit from Flipkart, which was worth US$800 million, IFC’s exit from Tikona Digital which was worth US$246 million and Bain Capital and GIC’s part exit from Genpact worth US$294 million.

The biggest exit in August this year valued at US$225 million, which was a part exit from Ola –a cab aggregator, by Helion Ventures, Accel India, Bessemer and others when a secondary sale was done to Temasek. Another huge exit in August 2018 was when Warburg Pincus sold 8.3% stake in AU Small Finance Bank Limited for a value of US$223 million in the open market. Then the lucrative conclusion of the US$16 billion Walmart-Flipkart deal, which happened in early September will be topping the lists of exits so far in the Indian PE/VC industry and also overshadow the dollar value of the exits that happened last year.

Open market exits were at the top with deals around US$480 million across eight exits, which was followed by three secondary exits which were valued at US$248 million. A PE backed IPO that came out in August 2018, saw Micro Ventures give up its stake in the Credit Access Grameen Limited for a value of US$71 million.

Financial services led from a sector perspective, as it recorded six deals worth US$381 million.

Fund raise

In July 2018, there were nine fund raises which were worth US$2 billion. In addition, fund raise plan was announced for about US$3 billion in August 2018. The hugest fund raise totaling US$695 million was done by Sequoia with an aim on investments during the early and growth stage especially in the sectors such as technology, healthcare, and consumer sectors.