Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- EVENT Hospitality & Entertainment (EVT) has released a company update, with regards to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak
- Covid-19 fears have caused mass cancellation of travel plans and delayed the release of major cinema titles
- In response, EVENT has initiated a number of cost-saving measures, including a reduction of the CEO’s base pay
- Jane Hastings will reduce her pay by $200,000 and while this is for an unspecified amount of time it could last until March 31, 2021
- EVENT’s share price is down 10.8 per cent and shares are trading for $8.34 each
EVENT Hospitality & Entertainment (EVT) has released an update, detailing the company’s response to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak.
Late last month, the company released its half year results ending December 31, 2019. At the time, EVENT provided commentary on the initial impacts of Covid-19, as well as expected impacts on the second half of the financial year.
Since then, the coronavirus outbreak has spread well beyond initial expectations, causing unanticipated impacts on nearly every industry.
In particular, fears of infection, enforced border closures, and travel bans have caused mass cancellations of travel and accommodation plans. As a result, the tourism and hospitality industries have been hit hard.
In addition, the coronavirus has caused disruptions for cinema distributors, who fear that low viewer attendance will result in poor box office sales. As a result, distributors have delayed the release of many major titles until later in the 2020 calendar year.
In response to the crippling impact that covid-19 is having on the hospitality and entertainment industries, EVENT has implemented cost-saving measures.
Most notably, EVENT’s CEO, Jane Hastings, has volunteered to reduce her base pay by $200,000. This reduction will be for an unspecified amount of time, but could last up to March 31, 2021, due to uncertain market conditions.
The company Chairman and other non-executive directors have also elected to forgo 20 per cent of their director fees for up to the same date.
EVENT CEO, Jane Hastings, stated that the company’s balance sheet has remained strong.
“Whilst it’s hard to predict how long Covid-19 will impact trading, I am confident we will be well-positioned to return to growth once the impact has passed,” Jane said.
“These cost reduction measures, in addition to our revenue strategies, are important to assist the group’s earnings during an extremely challenging trading period.”
“Given the dynamic and uncertain nature of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is not possible to provide meaningful overall guidance for the group’s earnings for the second half of the financial year,” she concluded.
EVENT’s share price is down 10.8 per cent and shares are trading for $8.34 each at 12:15 pm AEDT.
